qathet Regional District directors have postponed a vote on an initiative to ensure meetings start at the time they were scheduled.
At the December 20 committee of the whole meeting, directors considered a motion that indicated where there is more than one meeting scheduled on one day, meetings will be adjourned without debate 20 minutes before the scheduled start of the next scheduled meeting. Unfinished business from the adjourned meeting will move to the next meeting of that group.
The motion was brought to the assembly by City of Powell River director George Doubt, whose motion stated that there have recently been a number of times when one of the board’s committee meetings has run past the start time for another meeting, causing a delay for the start of the next meeting.
Doubt said meetings had gone considerably longer than the scheduled time and pushed back the beginning of the next meeting, where there are delegations waiting to come in.
“This motion basically says that if we are having a meeting and it gets to 20 minutes of the start time of the next meeting, the first meeting is adjourned,” said Doubt.
Electoral Area C director and board chair Clay Brander suggested postponing the motion until January.
Electoral Area B director Mark Gisborne said if the motion passed it would have to be included in the regional board procedures bylaw.
Electoral Area D director and committee chair Sandy McCormick said she agreed with adjourning 20 minutes before the nest meeting but did not agree with setting over the business until the next meeting of the committee.
“I wouldn’t want to predetermine how to make that decision,” said McCormick. “I support the first part but not the second.”
Doubt said the problem did not exist when the regional district did not have a number of meetings on the same day. He said when meetings were moved to the same day, that’s when overlaps occurred.
“A very simple solution would be going back to having meetings on separate days,” said Doubt. “It’s a lot of pressure to put on people to be at all those meetings,” said Doubt. “I don’t mind postponing this and giving everybody time to think about it. It would be a major change. On a busy day, we pack a lot of decision making into a short time.”
Brander said Doubt brought the motion forward because meetings are going on too long. He said directors have the ability to end meetings on time without sacrificing debate or discussion.
“If we have an efficient use of time, we focus on the motion in front of us and avoid making speeches and pontificating, and repeating comments that have been made, and only bring new information to the debate, if we can all abide by these rules, everyone can contribute,” said Brander.
City alternate director Trina Isakson said there was an opportunity for more consideration so she moved a motion to postpone to the January committee of the whole. The motion carried.
Join the Peak's email list for the top headlines right in your inbox Monday to Friday.
