City Council returns to council chambers for a new year

The first scheduled regular session of Prince Rupert City Council takes place tonight, the first such regular gathering since early December, no doubt providing the city's elected officials with an opportunity to hold an open session with citizens, should the latter choose to attend in person or view on the city's website live stream.

And while it marks the first regular session, council members have found their way to City Hall since the calendar flipped from 2012 to 2013.

Already this year they have held two of their Special Council meetings, the ones where the notice advises that the session is closed to the public owing, or as the notices like to provide "the first order is exclude the public".

They first met in Special Council session on January 3rd and again on January 10th and even today, with a public session on the calendar, they again will meet in Special session at 5 PM, prior to the regular 7 PM public version of events.

The small snippets of information provided for the reasons that these Special sessions take place range from labour relations issues, personnel issues, items of note on Watson Island or a review of progress reports on the preparations of the annual municipal report.

All featuring things we imagine that for one reason or another the details of which, can't be shared with the public. But still, with the frequency of these closed sessions, the perception that the real interesting stuff takes place behind closed doors does continue on.

When they get back to the kind of things they can talk about in public, tonight's regular session will feature such items as a request from the Snowbirds for a Community Enhancement Grant. A report from the Chief Financial Officer on the Monthly Department Reports for November 2012. The CFO will also receive a report on the City of Prince Rupert's Tsunami Warning Response.

They will also choose who will be bank Signatories, review a grant request from the Gitmax Mak'ay Nisga'a Society and Dancers and receive a report on the Municipal Alcohol Policy Program from the seemingly quite busy CFO, who seems to be covering all the reports tonight.

They will also receive a correspondence for action over the issue of the recent closure of the Connect Hearing Clinic in Prince Rupert as well as a chance to proclaim February as heart Month in the City.

Council will look at some resolutions from the Closed meetings, though we suspect we won't learn much more about them in the public session, examine some bylaws and hear a report from the City Manager on Outstanding Council Initiatives,

And Council Members will have the opportunity to comment on the volume of correspondences they have received in their Information packages (January 3 and January 9) for tonight's session.

At this point Council members can share their thoughts and opinions on those issues or ask questions and seek discussion on other items of interest to them.

As we did last year, you can review the snapshot of this City Council Session, as well as a more detailed review of Regular Council Meeting Proceedings with our timeline, a little later in the week.

The full year of Council developments will be available for review on our City Council Archive page.