Meeting commenced at 6:00pm
Brian Carruthers (Chief Administrative Officer or CAO) gave opening remarks and then proceeding with the swearing in of Mayor Kerry Cook and City Councillors Ivan Bonnell, Geoff Bourdon, Danica Hughes, Surinderpal Rathor, Laurie Walters and Sue Zacharias
CAO B. Carruthers then proceeded to preside of the swearing in of the City's Junior Council (Talia Baptiste, Cody Haley-York, Ana Lomavatu, Patrick Newsome, Ivona Ognjanova & Abbi Taylor)
The meeting was then turned over to Mayor Cook. The Invocation was presented, a Drumming Ceremony took place and a Poem was read out by CAO B. Carruthers on behalf of Frank Gleeson, Official Poet of the City of Williams Lake
First Nations Band Chiefs Anne Louie (WL Indian Band), Percy Guichon (on behalf of Tsihqot'in National Government) and Fred Robbins (Alkali Lake Band) gave oral remarks to Council
Mayor/Council each gave Inaugural Speeches
Mayor Cook presented a gift to retiring Councillor Tom Barr
Business:
1) Council received the report of the CAO outlining the appointments of Mayor Kerry Cook for Council appointments to Committees, Standing Committees, Ad Hoc/Select Committees and Community Committees for the 2011/2012 term - view the report here
Chairs/Members of Council's 3 Standing Committees as follows:
General Governance - Chair G. Bourdon with Mayor Cook and Councillor Bonnell
Planning and Operations - Chair S. Zacharias with Councillors Bonnell and Rathor
Community Services - Chair L. Walters and Councillors Rathor and Hughes
2) Council appointed Mayor Cook as the CRD Director for Williams Lake with Councillor Sue Zacharias to act as Alternate Director, in Mayor Cook's absence
3) Council appointed Mayor Cook to serve on both the Cariboo-Chilcotin Beetle Action Coalition and Northern Development Initiative Regional Advisory Committee
4) Council designated members of Council to serve as "Acting Mayor" in 2012 as follows:
a) January/July - Councillor Ivan Bonnell
b) February/August - Councillor Geoff Bourdon
c) March/ September - Councillor Danica Hughes
d) April / October - Councillor Surinderpal Rathor
e) May / November - Councillor Laurie Walters
f) June / December - Councillor Sue Zacharias
5) Council set the 2012 Meeting Schedule, as follows:
January 10 & 24 July 3 & 17
February 7 & 21 August 21
March 6 & 20 September 4 & 18
April 3 & 17 October 9 & 23
May 8 & 22 November 6 & 20
June 5 & 19 December 4 & 18
6) Council designated January 2nd, 2012 as "Wrestling Day" in the City of Williams Lake, in accordance with City Policy # 115
7) Council gave 2nd Reading to Zoning Amendment Bylaw #2151 (Grosso Developments Ltd - 555 Wotzke Dr)and set the Public Hearing for this application on Tuesday, December 20th at 7:00pm
Council adjourned at 7:20pm
My Observations:
1) I was surprised to see Councillor Rathor lose his post as Chair of the Community Services Committee - I thought his experience on Council over the last 18 years counted for something but as Councillor Rathor says himself to the Rush:
A lot of people accuse other candidates as running a slate, you can see who had the slate. Some say it was visible, some say invisible. I did not publicly endorse any candidates for Mayor, and other people did, I didn’t support anybody publicly, other people did. And you can see the support and what was there. It’s public evidence, everybody can see that
Also - Geoff Bourdon as Chair of the General Governance Committee may not have been a wise move, given his lack of experience (only 2nd term on Council). A wiser selection would have been Ivan Bonnell, given his years (14) as Councillor and 3 as Mayor...
2) Many parts of tonight's Inaugural Agenda were not available to the public until late Monday and even late today. This is contrary to Section 13.3 of Council Procedure Bylaw #1940, 2004 as follows:
Council agendas shall be available to members of Council and to the public on the Friday afternoon prior to the meeting.
This is a stark departure from previous Inaugural Meeting Agendas when these were available to the public as per the above requirement
8 comments:
Rathor paid for his open support of Nelson and his open defiance with Kerry. To expect any less would be folly. If you back the wrong horse, expect to lose.
If anyone is surprised by this you must have been watching a different election than me!
Nothing surprising at all. Everyone could see that Kerry also had her "team". The only sad thing is the fact that Kerry was critical of Scott and his "team" approach when she did the exact same thing. And by the looks of it is continuing with it even though all councillors were voted in by the taxpayers. Rathor got the second highest vote of the councillors, shouldn't that tell her that the public values his input?
Video posted online clearly showed Zacharias, Bourden and Hughes in Kerry's living room on the night of the election. Planning a slate were we? Perhaps they were shown how badly Woodland Drive needs city services while enjoying Kerry's hospitality. Lets see what happens first: Fixing of South Lakeside Drive or the Woodland Drive upgrade.
Why does no one talk about this??
Hats off to Rathor for not just doing what Kerry wants him to when he does not feel that it is in the communities interest. He plays no games, tells it like it is, and always putts the taxpayer first. THANKS!!
So no buisness ties between this mayor/councillors but it sure looks like there are personal agendas errr ties.
Ra Ra Ra
Much better. pffft.
Williams Lake taxpayers should give themselves a good swift kick for falling for Cook's antics.
Ever since the hilarious "brown envelope" incident Kerry Cook and Brian Carruthers have dragged Nelsons name through the mud. Yet I never heard a personal comment against her come from his mouth. The slate issue was comical as the incumbents were quite vocal on who they were supporting...that is a slate plain and simple.
Now Cook's antics against Rathor is deplorable but as long as she has that spin doctor working for her she could sell snake oil to a corpse.
I did not vote for Nelson, or Cook because personally neither of them have any ethics, but as for intergrity I would have to weigh in favour of Nelson in that at least he kept his mouth shut. I feel bad for what we have in store for us.
Seems to me that the mayoralty race results were fairly clear. Not much room for ambiguity with a vote spread like that.
To assume that Cook has shifted Rathor's council portfolio as retribution may be questionable logic, sometimes people just don't do a particularly good job in some responsibilities or they just get stale. Whatever, the portfolio appointments are at the Mayor's pleasure and it's been that way for longer than Rathor has been on council.
And no, my mayoralty candidate didn't win, either.
Nelson kept his mouth shut??!! Are you kidding me??
His campaign was one of the worst I've ever seen for low-brow American style politics and he paid the price.
You know it's bad when politicans from neighboring communities are quoted in the media saying they are thankful that the campaign in their City didn't get as stupid as the one here.
Anonymous at 9:04. Please show link or quote of neighboring communities comment.
Anonymous at 4:35pm
On Tuesday, Nov 22nd - 100 Mile House Mayor Mitch Campsall said this, in part: (courtesy of the Rush)
"He (Campsall) also commends Maureen Pinkney (100 Mile House Mayoral Candidate) for keeping it clean, noting the mudslinging in Williams Lake and Quesnel."
Steve
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