My view of the Dec 4th WL Council Mtg

Packed WL City Council Chambers

At last night's Williams Lake City Council -- the meeting started with over 200 people coming into City Council Chambers to hear from the TNG Delegation speaking on their opposition to 'New Prosperity'.  Interesting that a need was identified to have two RCMP Officers in the meeting as well.  This could be argued two ways -- one, it was to ensure peace and order during the TNG Delegation where those in favour of 'New Prosperity' might cause an issue or two, people (in general) can not be trusted to behave themselves so we'll ensure that no problems arise by preventive measures (RCMP Officers in room)

I was also disappointed that Mayor Cook didn't allow an opportunity to have a 'question period' where City Councillors could ask questions in a public setting.  Other than that, I'm not sure what the TNG really accomplished, other than perhaps 'blowing off steam'.  At this point, we still have the 'divide' between those who support 'New Prosperity' and those who don't while we had Joe Alphonse saying the greater "Cariboo-Chilcotin community" needs to come together and heal from this division in order to move the region forward and with that statement, I wholeheartedly agree with him

After the TNG Delegation - Council settled back into its' business starting with Council appointments for 2013.  Mayor Cook's practice of withholding the report outlining the appointments until just before the Council meeting is one I profoundly disagree with.  Previous Mayors' were able to make the appointments and have them on the Regular Agenda on the Friday before the scheduled Council meeting

Meanwhile - Mayor Cook proposed to establish the following 5 Standing Committees:

a) Executive
b) Finance
c) Community Services
d) General Governance
e) Planning and Operations

She also eliminated Chairs at the 5 aforementioned Committees and instead, a "Champion" will be designated as items are referred to Committees.  Like Councillor Bourdon, I'm not sure if this is the best way to go.  The previous practice of designated Chairs of Committees should have been done.

Finally - Councillor Ivan Bonnell proposed that the previously rejected Blue Fins Swim Club be referred back to the Central Cariboo Joint Committee for reconsideration.  But as Councillor Geoff Bourdon said (and I agree with him), if it didn't pass a review prior to consideration for a Grant-in-Aide for 2013 because it didn't fit the new Grant-in-Aide policy, why reconsider it? If the Joint Committee recommends a Grant-in-Aide for the Blue Fins, then the Joint Committee should simply, at that point, rip up the policy and return to the old "dog and pony" show and simply horse trade applications until you spend your proposed Grant-in-Aide budget of $50,000 ($35,000 City and $15,000 CRD)

According to acting City Administrator Geoff Goodall - the procedural reason the Blue Fins application failed is because a majority of WL City Council supported it, while the remaining CRD Directors in Joan Sorley (Area F) and Byron Kemp (Area E) split in support so the resolution to approve was defeated while Area D Director Deb Bischoff has made the decision not to attend Joint Committee meetings.  Council has now requested the CRD Directors' for Areas D-E-F to attend Joint Committee meetings or in the alternative, that their respective Alternate Directors' attend in order to satisfy quorum issues

The final meeting of Williams Lake City Council will be on Dec 18th at 6:00pm in Williams Lake Council Chambers.  The 2013 Provisional Budget will be presented for Council endorsement at this meeting.  I encourage the public to attend this meeting and observe what Council will be approving as the public in the New Year, as I understand it, will get further opportunities for input prior to final adoption of the 2013 City of WL Budget by May 15th, 2013