City Council Preview: Monday, January 28, 2019

Prince Rupert City Council brings their first month of the year to a close with a much anticipated Public comment period in the offing, with the six week Boil Water Order perhaps set to frame some of the discussion from those residents who may have a few words to say.

And while the Boil Water order came to an end just the nick of time for tonight's Council session, replaced by a Water Quality Advisory; such was some of the passion to the discussion on social media that it has become a bit of a high profile topic since the original Boil order was put in place on December 14th.

The monthly opportunity for public feedback will come from the Committee of the Whole session, the first one that this council has hosted since the end of November.

It is also the first opportunity for public comment since Councillors Niesh and Skelton-Morven injected some talking points into the debate with their thoughts on the use of social media in the community.

One presentation is listed on the Agenda for the COW session on the evening, with Tom Kertes, the organizer of Community for Clean Water scheduled to appear.

The Regular Session Agenda features a range of reports from a number of Civic departments which include: The Director of Recreation and Community Services, The Manager of Communications and three reports from the City's Corporate Administrator.

Council will also receive a correspondence for action from Sean Carlson, the President of Kaien Trails seeking support to pursue design funding for a trail at McClymont Park.

City Council members will also meet behind Closed Doors on Monday with a Special Closed Session planned for 5 PM, the Council membership citing two elements of the Community Charter for the closed session.

Included in the reasons for keeping the doors closed is a passage related to law enforcement, an unusual element that might perhaps require some kind of further explanation from Council.

90.1 (f)  law enforcement, if the council considers that disclosure could reasonably be expected to harm the interests of the municipality if they were held in public; and

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

The opportunity for residents to review the Agenda for the night was provided with significantly less lead time this week, with the heads up on the night ahead only posted to the City's website on Monday morning.

You can review the Full Agenda Packages for the Regular Council Session and Committee of the Whole from the City's website here.

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COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE

Adoption of Agenda and Past minutes -- Mayor Brain call the meeting to order and then will review the COW agenda for the evening and Council will adopt the minutes of past meetings.

Petitions and Delegations

Presentation from Tom Kertes of Community for Clean Water

Question Period from the Public

Reports, Questions and Inquiries from members of City Council

Adjournment to reconvene to the regular Council Meeting

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REGULAR SESSION OF CITY COUNCIL

Adoption of Agenda and Past minutes -- Mayor Brain will review the agenda for the evening and Council will adopt the minutes of past meetings.

Petitions and Delegations

Unfinished Business

Reports and Recommendations

Report from the Director of Recreation and Community Services  -- Mr. David Geronazzo will outline the background to a grant application for a number of renovations to civic facilities. Should Council decide to move forward with the grant application, the City's share of the funding requirement to be $175,560. Council will consider whether to ask staff to include the city's share in the 2019 Budget.    (see page 8 of the Agenda)

Report from the Communications Manager   -- Ms. Veronika Stewart will outline the grant funding opportunity through UBCM towards upgrades in equipment for the city's Emergency Operations Centre   (see page 10 of the Agenda)

Report from the Corporate Administrator --  Mr. Rory Mandryk will outline the background to a proposed three year Service Agreement Renewal with the Prince Rupert Branch of the SPCA. (see page 12 of the Agenda)

Report from the Corporate Administrator --  Mr. Mandryk will outline the background to a proposed three year lease renewal with the Prince Rupert Racquet Centre . (see page 22 of the Agenda)

Report from the Corporate Administrator --  The final report from the Corporate Administrator will review the background to a proposed five year lease renewal with the Prince Rupert Curling Club . (see page 41 of the Agenda)

Correspondences for Action 

Council will also receive and review a letter from Kaien Trails, with the local ogranization seeking the support of the City of Prince Rupert as it seeks to obtain funding for design work on a trail for the McClymont Park area. That proposed project is part of Kaien Trails Phase 1 loop proposals (see page 58 of the Agenda)

Resolutions from Closed Meetings

Bylaws

The evening will come to an end with any Additional Items as well as Reports, Questions and Inquiries from Members of Council.

Council members can also take advantage of the period to 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 items of note related to the January 28th session can be found here.

While our archive of all sessions for 2019 for Council is available here.


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