Upcoming Business at Local Gov't meetings next week

Quesnel:

a) Quesnel Councillor (and Quesnel Mayoral candidate) Ron Paull will ask Quesnel Council to direct their staff to post the entire "line-by-line" Quesnel Budget online - see the details here

Editor's Note - it'll be interesting to see if his request is successful or not... certainly I really want to see this in Williams Lake.  Residents, regardless of where you live, should see all budget lines to see where Council is spending your money 

b) New 5 Year agreement between Quesnel/CRD to manage the North Cariboo Recreation/Parks Function - see more here

Williams Lake:

Council:

a) 3rd Quarter Report - see here

Editor's Note - while this report has Council actions covering the period of July 5th - Sept 13th, last year's 3rd Quarter report was much more detailed including CAO's review of 3rd Quarter activities, review of City Financials for the 9 months of the 2010 Fiscal Yr, review of Mayor/Council Travel Budgets for the 9 months of the 2010 Fiscal Yr, status of City Objectives to the end of September 2010, Highlights, Review Status of 2010 Capital Projects (Budget) - you can read the 2010 3rd Quarter report here.  It is important to be consistent if you are going to these quarterly reports, especially from the public's perspective

Joint Committee:

Download the Agenda here - please note, the Agenda is 16 MB in size and is not recommended for dial-up users to download...

a) Review of 2012 Grants in -Aid

Recommendation to deny 6 requests and consider the remaining seven

b) Financial Request of Scout Island

This is the second request that has come before Joint Committee in a year.  If Joint Committee decides to defer it some more - then they should, at a minimum, inform WL Field Naturalists of same and advise of a timeline when they can anticipate a decision.  It should be noted that as part of budget discussions, the CCACS (local Arts/Culture Society) have recommended that Scout Island receive $12,500 next yr as a "Fee-for-Service" contract for their Trail System... and looks to be no change either.  Without a Gaming Grant (which is a certainty now) - the City/CRD needs to step up and provide more money for this "crown jewel"

c) Review of Services at CMRC (Local Recreation Complex) at request of Stefan Hoezler - Staff to recommend that no further action be taken.  Lots of letters in support of Staff's position.  Clearly - Mr. Hoezler and his supporters will not be happy if the Joint Committee adopts Staff's recommendation.  It'll be interesting to see if this item comes up in the CRD Area 'E' Election or WL Council election

d) Planning for new Complex (Pool, etc) - Staff will recommend a "Task Force" be formed of 1 City Councillor, 1 CRD Director and 1 Staff person from City/CRD.  The Joint Committee can do better by ditching this process in favour of a planning process that uses a "OCP Development Model" by deciding what all of our Recreation Facilities (Rec Complex, Ball/Soccer Fields, Scout Island, Curling Rink, etc) should look like over a 5, 10 and 20 year period and how much are taxpayers' prepared to pay in taxes/debt for pay for renewed recreational facilities.  As Councillor Rathor said himself:

Indoor Turf Facility must a community project and driven by the community and not by the politicians