Tuesday, January 24, 2012

WL Council Highlights - Jan 24th meeting

Present:

Mayor Cook and Councillors’ I. Bonnell, G. Bourdon, D. Hughes, SPS Rathor, L. Walters and S. Zacharias

Staff Present:

Brian Carruthers - CAO
Geoff Goodall – GM of Planning and Operations
Cindy Bouchard – Manager of Legislative Services
Tom Chung – IT Manager
Ken MacInnis – Communications Coordinator
Ann Burill – Manager of Social Development

Meeting called to order at 6:00pm
Minutes of Jan 10th, 2012 WL Council meeting approved

Delegation:

1) Fred Robbins – Chief of Esk'etemc First Nations (Alkali Lake) appeared before Council to present information re: Indian Residential Schools Settlement

Business:

1) Council received for information the 2011 Economic Snapshot Report
2) Council approved registration, travel and associated expenses for Mayor Cook and CAO Brian Carruthers to attend the 75th Annual Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) Conference being held June 1 to 4, 2012 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

Councillor SPS Rathor was recorded opposed

3) Council referred the Strong Regions Report to the City of Williams Lake / Central Cariboo Joint Committee for discussion

4) Council referred DVP #1-2012 (WL Seniors’ Village – Lot Servicing Exemption) to the Advisory Planning Commission for consideration at its’ Jan 31st meeting. Council will formally consider DVP #1-2012 at its’ February 7th meeting

5) Council ratified an email poll of Jan 19th/20th authorizing a letter of support for TRU's industry collaborative Logging Truck Driver Training

6) Council adopted a Committee of the Whole recommendation to receive and support, in principle, the BEAS (Business Expansion/Attraction Strategy) Task Force 12 Recommendations and Staff were requested to provide a report to Council with respect to implementation, priorities and costs for consideration in the 2012 budget and Council’s strategic priorities for the 2011-2014 term of Council. Letters of appreciation will be sent to the members of the Task Force for their work on the Task Force

7) Council received a letter from Cariboo Direct Farm Market Association requesting that power fees be waived at Boitanio Park for the Friday Farmers’ Market. Council decided to deny their request as they did not meet the Sept 30th deadline to apply for a Grant-in-Aide, as per Grants-in-Aid Policy No. 18. Council also encouraged them to apply for a Grant-in-Aide in 2013 by the Sept 30th, 2012 deadline

8) Council received a letter from Community Services Minister Ida Chong in regards to the Community Invitation for the Province-Wide Grey Cup Tour and Council encouraged the community to attend this event at 2:30pm on Feb 2nd at the Cariboo Memorial Recreation Complex

9) Council ratified 4 Proclamations as follows:

a) International Development Week - Feb 5-11
b) White Cane Week – Feb 5-11
c) Chamber of Commerce Week – Feb 20-24
d) National Aboriginal Day – June 21st

10) Council received In-Camera Report #11-2011 regarding appointments to the Interim Board of Directors for the City's Limited Liability Partnership for the Community Forest Licence. Individuals appointed were:

a) WL City Councillor Sue Zacharias
b) WL City Councillor Geoff Bourdon
c) City of WL CAO Brian Carruthers

11) Council received the “Council Information Package” for Jan 24th as follows:

• November 15, 2011 - Letter from Minister Ida Chong re 2011 UBCM Convention Meeting
• November 16, 2011 - Letter from the Office of the Lieutenant Governor re Invite to 86th Annual WL Stampede
• December 22, 2011 - Letter from Spectra Energy re Congratulations on Elections/Re-Elections and Western Canada Operations Update
• December 22, 2011 - Letter from UBCM re 2011 Resolutions
• December 2011 - CRD Up Front Newsletter - Winter 2011
• January 4, 2012 - Letter from CN Western Region re Congratulations on Election
• January 10, 2012 - Letter from the BC Retired Teachers' Association re Congratulation on Election & Survey Summary on volunteer role of retired teachers in BC
• January 12, 2012 - Letter from CUPE BC re Congratulation on Election

Council then adjourned & re-convened their In-Camera Meeting

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Didn't Rathor go to FCM in Halifax last year instead of the mayor? I bet that cost a few bucks too.

Steve Forseth said...

Anonymous...

Yes, he did with CAO Carruthers. In the meantime - perhaps the time has come to ask if the City should continue to be a member of FCM... remember City of WL joined FCM in 2004

Steve

Anonymous said...

Fair question. I was interested in the hypocrisy of going one year and then trying to prevent others from going the next.

Steve Forseth said...

In that vein - yes, it absolutely could be seen as hypocrisy...

Anonymous said...

Or perhaps the CAO should not be going every year. I'm sure the mayor or alternate is more than capable of attending alone.

Anonymous said...

Rathor is starting to look like a side-show of the worst kind. It's unfortunate this kind of thing is happening on our Council.
I swear I actually saw some of the other Councilors roll their eyes on several occasions when Rathor started talking.
It doesn't sound like a team working together for the betterment of the community.

Anonymous said...

I like Rathor, always have, but, he says what he thinks the taxpayer wants to hear, because most voters don't educate themselves enough to know that taxes are what make things run and that increases are usually inevitable.

And as far as this council rolling their eyes? It is unfortunate yes, but eyes have been rolling for many year while he toots his horn and rambles on.