City of Powell River will be changing the way it does business.
At the June 1 city council meeting, councillors endorsed an initiative brought forward by interim chief administrative officer (CAO) Tom Day after the city had brought in local government management consultant George Cuff to assist council in identifying a governance system that provides for clear roles, fully informed decisions of council, improved transparency and clear accountability, according to a report for council from Day.
Included in the initiative will be cancellation of regularly scheduled committee of the whole meetings and elimination of the finance committee, resulting in two regular council meetings per month, rather than two council meetings, two committee of the whole meetings and a finance committee meeting.
Councillor Cindy Elliott said council had a fulsome discussion about the matter at the May 30 committee of the whole meeting and there is some discomfort around the lack of structure and details on how this will work. She said she wants the public to know voting in favour of the initiative means staff will come back with more details for council to have a final approval of the actual bylaws and procedures, which will have to be amended.
“This is an endorsement for them to go ahead and write those and make those changes for us to see,” said Elliott. “We did express a lot of concerns for what we hoped would be in those new procedures and what the details would address.
“I’m in favour of the motion and I’m looking forward to seeing the draft changes in a more detailed way so they can be approved at a future meeting.”
Councillor George Doubt said council is facing a skeleton resolution that puts out some ideas and proposes some general solutions, but it isn’t a final document, and it isn’t a final set of procedures council can follow.
“It’s not a schedule of meetings in the future,” said Doubt. “All those things are going to be worked out after we get a report, which, if we pass this, will be happening at the June 22 council meeting. We’re not at a final document yet.
“We are basically instructing staff to come back with some ideas. I’m sure council will respond with what we think of those ideas in detail at the time. I’m going to prepare to spend a lot of time here on the evening of June 22.”
Councillor Trina Isakson said she recommends people read the report to see what might be encompassed. She said some recommendations might come back related to, for example, updating the procedure bylaw or governance policies so there are no longer council portfolios mentioned. There would be more business focus at council meetings, and rather than having longer discussions at committee of the whole, they will happen at council meetings, where more people might be paying attention, she added.
“There’s a number of things related to streamlining meetings, but also making sure the business of council is happening at council,” said Isakson. “I look forward to the recommendations. This is taking us in a good direction, but, as people say, the devil will be in the details, so we will probably have a fulsome discussion to be able to react to what staff come back with.”
Mayor Ron Woznow said council had the opportunity to spend a day with Cuff, who is recognized as the leading authority consulting on municipal affairs in Canada.
“Everything that has been put forward is consistent with what George Cuff talked with us about and there was certainly an agreement to move forward,” said Woznow. “More importantly, it would allow us to hire a permanent chief administrative officer who understands that the procedures of the City of Powell River we’re going to adopt were very consistent with 2023.”
Council unanimously passed a motion for the interim CAO to take steps necessary to implement the system of governance referred to as the chief administrative officer as the sole employee of council model and the administrative processes necessary to ensure accountable governance.
Staff was instructed to prepare amendment options to bylaws and policies, including the procedure bylaw, governance policy and delegation bylaw. They were also directed to cancel the June 13 committee of the whole meeting and June 22 finance committee meeting, plus move the June 15 regular council meeting to June 22 at 7 pm in council chambers.
