City of Powell River Council’s experiment to move committee of the whole meetings from Thursdays to Tuesdays will become permanent.
At the Thursday, May 21, council meeting, councillors considered a motion to extend the trial for two more months until the procedure bylaw could be amended.
The recommendation before council was that the June and July committee of the whole meetings be held on Tuesdays of the same week as the council meetings at 3:30 pm and that staff be directed to amend the procedure bylaw to make this a permanent change.
Councillor CaroleAnn Leishman said the city is permanently moving the city’s committee of the whole meetings from Thursdays. Committee of the whole meetings were on the same day as city council meetings, held on Thursdays, and it could make for a full day of meetings, especially on Thursdays that also had Powell River Regional District meetings.
“Moving it to Tuesdays at 3:30 pm instead of having [it earlier] in the daytime, we are hoping that more public can come to committee of the whole meetings,” Leishman said. “In the motion we are clarifying that committee of the whole will be the same week as city council, not opposite weeks.”
Councillor Rob Southcott said, in terms of engagement, he would like to see this change communicated to the community.
“I’ve already come across a couple of instances where people are shifting gears because we’ve gone from Thursday morning to Tuesday afternoon,” he said.
The change generally seems to be a good idea, according to Southcott, but he said it’s important to let people know about the change.
Mac Fraser, the city’s chief administrative officer, said there is mention on the website, and if anyone goes to city hall to pick up a hard copy of the committee of the whole agenda, they are alerted.
The motion carried unanimously.
