When the current City Council took their oaths of office back on November 7th, 2022, Mayor Herb Pond upon returning to the post he held over a decade ago, noted for the public that City Hall was where the People's Business was done.
But as they do that people's business, while there is a welcome mat out for the public to join in on that business, sometimes it seems that the actual welcome and invitation to the Chamber could use a bit of work when it comes to hospitality.
As 2023 started off, Mayor Pond noted of a new addition to the Council meeting process at the end of January, that of an opportunity for members of the public to speak to Council if they find an item on the Agenda for the night that hey have comments or concerns about.
At the January 23rd session, Mr. Pond observed the following on the new feature.
"What we do want to do, is if a member of the public reads the Agenda and says, Oh, they're going to talk about this tonight, I've got some comments I would like to make about it.
At every one of our regular council meetings Item Number Five would allow you to come and make that presentation"
It was a welcome addition to the goal of more engagement with the Public, though as we saw most recently as the final February Council session, it seems that sometimes the Council membership may not always read the agenda themselves before they turn on the microphones.
That as a delegation to Council looking for some answers on a proposed land sale by the City had to explain how their attendance was not out of Order, but actually related to something from the Agenda.
The use of the new feature has not been frequent of late, but in some past occasions the suggestion that questions are not in order has been made when the public show up.
Though as we saw in February, Council members were quick to move to provide opportunity for those speaking to take their concerns on downtown parking to city staff, outside of the public meeting process.
The need for rules of order is important, though the City might want to make more use of their information options to explain how their newest public speaking opportunity works for the public.
Another area where the Public has access to their elected officials is through the monthly Committee of the Whole session, it usually takes place ahead of a Regular Council session and is designed to allow members of the public to come forward with any issue of note or concern to relay to the Council membership.
Though curiously in February, the end of month session didn't take place at all.
And as we noted in a story related to some current Social media discussion on the state of the downtown core, that was because it was decided that since no one had come forward previous to the session to indicate a desire to speak at the committee of the Whole, then there was no need to actually call one.
Council did announce a hastily called Committee of the Whole session for February 9th, though it appears that was announced mainly to receive a presentation from the city's consultants on Transportation themes.
The video of that Session has yet to be posted to the City's Video archive.
As it is for the Agenda related speaking opportunity, few in the community probably know about the range of civic rules and the City does not really go out of its way to remind the public about the valuable community engagement options.
Both the Agenda focused opportunities and those from the Committee of the Whole option could use a bit more public exposure from the City to highlight the chance to engage with our elected officials.
Whether anyone has registered prior to the scheduled Committee of the Whole session or not, the Mayor or Chair of the meeting on the night should probably still go through the motions of asking if anyone has any questions for the opportunity, just on the off chance someone in the community has made the effort to attend a Council session.
The Third area of active Public Engagement is through the calling of a Public Hearing, those are specific to zoning themes for the most part and allow the public to make a contribution to the discussion prior to Council approving or turning aside a request for a change.
While the Public Hearing process has been hit and miss on attendance so far in 2023, the public consultation process has provided for some interesting discussions this year when folks show up.
Though at times the way the City provides for its Council broadcast, serves to sabotage any best intentions, with poor audio and other glitches leaving anyone viewing from home lost as to what anyone is saying.
Of note to that theme was the most recent Public Hearing on a proposed Height change amendment for new buildings in the downtown core. During that Public hearing, the contribution of former Mayor Jack Mussallem was the thing of a silent movie.
It was a lost opportunity for sure when it comes to an overview from someone who could call on both his Mayoralty experience and his time as Senior Staffer at City Hall to offer some insight to the issue.
The three elements of engagement available for the public to become active participants and offer guidance for the Council membership are valuable elements.
As is the use of the Rupert Talks Portal where residents can access more background information on City initiatives.
Hopefully Council will take the initiative to build on them and provide the public with a welcome to participate and to have some belief that their voice is important.
The get their first chance to reaffirm that dedication towards more community engagement on Monday, when the first of the two monthly Council sessions for March takes place.
More notes on City Council themes can be reviewed from our archive page.
One of the problems is sometimes the agenda is not published until the day of the meeting. Get the agenda out the Monday prior to the meeting.
ReplyDeleteThe council and city isn't interested in being tied up with the public having their say. They like to keep the meetings very short.
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