Thirty four days after they last met in a public Council Session, Prince Rupert's Mayor and Six Councillors make a return to the Council chamber; though one which still be through virtual methods, as they host the first Council session since the March 23rd session at which they unanimously declared a State of Local Emergency.
That declaration as things turned out had a short shelf life, with the Province of British Columbia bringing it to an end three days later when they put in place a Provincial Declaration and suspended a number of civic declarations across BC.
Since that time, City Council for the most part it seems took to the ground.
With few public comments to be heard from the elected officials, delivering notice of a cancelled Regular Council session of April 6th and most of what civic communication that there was, coming through the Mayor's Social Media feed.
As we noted on Friday, that shift out of the public spotlight left any number of questions to be answered by the Council members, and perhaps tonight may be the night where they all play a little catch up.
Though for the most par, the Official Agenda for the evening does not offer much of note, the announcement of a successful bid for project at the Recreation Centre, some property variances and a request for a letter of support for a proclamation for May.
There is one area of note for residents, that of the Reports to Council related to the Five Year Financial Plan and Property Tax Bylaws which are set for first second and third readings tonight.
As it is a last meeting of the month, tonight's session was supposed to be a Committee of the Whole session, where normally there would have been a public comment period set aside for the night, that to allow for comment and quesitons from the public.
However Council as they did in March, the Council members have once again cancelled that element of their meeting, with the notice posted last week.
According to the City Council Meeting page on the City website as well as a post to the Civic Facebook Page, the Council proceedings for tonight will continue on in a remote format, with no public attendance to be allowed at this time.
Those with an interest in tonight's council session can view the Live Feed from the City website. or by way of CityWest Cable Channel 10/310.
Council members will also meet tonight in a Special Closed Session at 5PM , citing two items from the Community Charter as the reason to exclude the public.
90.1 (c) labour relations or other employee relations; and,
(f) law enforcement, if the council considers that disclosure could reasonably be expected to harm the conduct of an investigation under or enforcement or an enactment.
You can review the notes of the Agenda Package for tonight here.
While the Official Agenda does not have much on the to do list for a group that has been away from public view for over five weeks, Mayor Lee Brain did provide his own overview last week as to what Council has been up to since March 23rd, as well as some of the themes ahead for the community.
How much of that list that the Mayor and Council tackle can be viewed from the video options available starting at 7PM.
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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.
Reports and Recommendations
Report from the Director of Recreation and Community Service related to the selection of a Contractor for the Boiler System upgrade project (See page 6 of the Agenda)
Report from the Corporate Administrator related to a Development Variance Permit Application for a property on Jamaica Avenue (See page 8 of the Agenda)
Report from the Corporate Administrator related to a Development Variance Permit Application for a property on Kaien Road (See page 19 of the Agenda)
Requests
Request from Child Find British Columbia for a proclamation of May as Missing Children's Month. (See page 37 of the Agenda)
Bylaws
Report from the Chief Financial Officer - Re: 2020 Five year Financial plan Bylaw (See page 39 of the Agenda)
Report from the Chief Financial Officer - Re: 2020 Property Tax Bylaw (See page 52 of the Agenda)
The evening will come to an end with any Additional Items as well as Reports, Questions and Inquiries from Members of Council.
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 April 27th session can be reviewed here
While our archive of all sessions for 2020 for Council is available here.
To return to the most recent blog posting of the day, click here.
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