Not so much a variation of the old Who's on First routine, as it was, How Many are in the office?
The question came from Councillor Barry Cunningham, who appeared to be inquiring about a comment from Mayor Brain back in late March.
That after the Province suspended the City's Local State of Emergency, with Mr. Brain in a wide ranging response to the provincial move, commenting on the stretched abilities of the bylaw office.
We are to give them a list of our needs, respond to requests for information and supplies, and make all our facilities available to them. They also suggested that our 1 bylaw officer should go enforce their provincial orders...
On Monday, Councillor Cunningham speaking to a number of points on the current relationship between the province and City, made note of the staffing levels as part of his review of the city's now suspended State of Emergency.
"You had mentioned earlier and I've heard this said before, that our one bylaw officer ... I thought we had two"
Monday night the Mayor seemed somewhat confused as to how many people work in the two person department, seemingly unsure as to who was at work or not at the moment.
The topic was somewhat resolved by the City's Corporate Administrator Rosa Miller, who finally confirmed the status of two bylaw officers in place on the city payroll.
Though in these times of limited essential service levels and such, missing from the overview was any discussion on the night as to what the bylaw officers whether one, or two; have been tasked to do of late.
On the theme of Mr. Cunningham's narrative of Provincial/Municipal relations on the night, there was also no indication provided as to whether the City of Prince Rupert bylaw office is indeed working on the Public Health orders as outlined by the Province of British Columbia during the COVID-19 response.
The short review of the situation can be explored the City's YouTube archive starting at the 51 minute mark.
For more notes on Monday's City Council session see our Council Timeline feature here.
A wider overview of Council discussion themes is available here.
It didn't sound like the mayor and council are very interested in supporting the Province's requests for assistance, although according to the CFO they will "pounce on" on any stimulus funds the Province makes available down the road.
ReplyDeleteThere are vehicles in the downtown area that have been parked in the same place for more then a week. Some enforcement of bylaws would be nice. Giving out tickets is safe an expected.
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