Monday, December 12, 2016

City Council Preview: Monday, December 12, 2016


The calendar pages are quickly working their way down to the end of 2016 and with tonight's Prince Rupert City Council Session, the city's elected officials will host their final regularly scheduled public session for the year.

And while Mayor Lee Brain suggested a few weeks back that the December 12th session would be chock a block full of work to tackle, the Agenda suggests that unless there is some significant disagreement on themes of Sewer and Water rates and other assorted charges, things should move pretty quickly for the night.

Other than a pair of reports from City staff, the main focus on the night will be directed to changes and increases to the amounts charged by the city for a range of city services as outlined in a report to Council to be received prior to Councils Bylaw motion process.

As for some of the topics of note in recent weeks made popular at Council, there's no indication that those topics will be making for much conversation for the final session of the year.

Councillor Thorkelson's controversial motion of early November related to the city's position on LNG development for Lelu Island would appear to still be in the workshop stage, with no mention of a pending vote yay or nay listed among tonight's offerings.

Though there is the regular Comment period for the Council members and the Mayor, offering one final public opportunity to raise any issues of concern before the year comes to an end.

You can review the background documentation for tonight's Regular Session from the Agenda notice here.

Council also will be holding a Closed Session for this evening starting at 5 PM, the city citing criteria from Section 90 of the Community Charter, noting that the public is to be excluded from those deliberations for the a pair of reasons.

One of which is sure to raise a few eyebrows and perhaps may require a bit more background for the public at some point.

90.1  (f) law enforcement, if the council considers that disclosure could reasonably be expected to harm the conduct of an investigation under or enforcement of an enactment; and

(k) negotiations and related discussion respecting the proposed provision of a municipal service that are at their preliminary stages and that, in the view of council, could reasonably be expected to harm the interests of the municipality if they were held in public.

As for the Regular  Council session that starts off with the adoption of agendas and minutes.

Petitions and Delegations and any Unfinished Business open up the evening.

The pace picks up a bit with the prospect of a number of Reports and Recommendations among the items listed:

Report from the Director of Operations -- Regarding a Proposal to Stratify 100 - 1st Avenue East (Page 8 of the Agenda Package)

Report from the Chief Financial Officer -- Regarding the 2017 Financial Plan Capital Works and Purchases (Page 15 of the Agenda Package)

Correspondences for Action makes for the next item of business for the night followed by any items under the themes of Resolutions from Closed Meetings.

Bylaws mark the next item of the Agenda on the night, with the repeal of three bylaws; Solid Waste, Sewer Regulations and Rates and Water Regulations and Rates.

Those to be introduced on Monday and given First, Second and Third Reading include:

Water Utility Management Bylaw, Sanitary and Storm Sewer Utility Management Bylaw, Solid Waste Management Bylaw, Water Fund Asset Management Reserve Fund Bylaw, Sewer Fund Asset Management Reserve Fund Bylaw, Solid Waste Asset Management Reserve Fund Bylaw, Cemetery Fees and Charges Bylaw.

The full overview of the Bylaw recommendations can be found on page 18 of the Agenda.

The evening then moves on to Additional Items from Council members, as well as Reports, Questions and Inquiries from Members of Council.

Council members will also offer up any items or concerns that they have for consideration on the night.

The Live broadcast of the City Council session can be found here, a video archive of past sessions is available here.

Our archive of items related to the December 12th session can be found here.

While our archive of all sessions of 2016  for council  is available here.




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