qathet Regional District directors approved board and standing committee meeting schedules for 2020, but one board member was asking for more meetings in the coming year.
At the board meeting on Wednesday, December 18, Electoral Area B director Mark Gisborne said one of the problems he experienced in 2019 is there were, in some cases, large and expansive agendas. He said in some cases regional directors are feeling rushed to get on with business, stop debating and passing the motions.
“That is ultimately a disservice to the public,” said Gisborne. “We should have the possibility of at least a second committee of the whole meeting in case the agendas start to run long so we can really give the issues in front of us good debate.”
He said in the past year there were 15 committee of the whole meetings and in 2020 the plan is to have 12. He said the regional district will be making up for it by having six meetings of the newly constituted finance committee but he thinks the board will still run into issues of postponing matters over and over and not giving enough time for decisions before the board.
“I don’t agree with the schedule and I really wish we had a second committee of the whole meeting on there, even if we don’t use it,” said Gisborne.
Board chair Patrick Brabazon said he wanted to point out to the board that what was being proposed was a minimum meeting schedule and that all committees can meet more often than the schedule provides, at the discretion of the chair.
“If we need an extra committee of the whole meeting or an extra meeting of any sort, the chair of that committee can call it,” said Brabazon.
Chief administrative officer Al Radke said that would be the wiser way to go, because if the board puts in a number of meetings, they will have to be held, and if they are not needed, there is advertising that needs to be done to notify the public.
Area D director Sandy McCormick said that as chair of the committee of the whole, she agrees there are meetings that can be onerous and tiring. She said she is looking forward to the formation of the finance committee, to see how much that takes matters away from the committee of the whole.
“There are quite a number of issues that are really financial that I believe could go to the finance committee rather than committee of the whole,” said McCormick. “I am going to give this a go for the first few months of the year and see how it unfolds. We’ll see if the committee of the whole agendas are more what we feel is an appropriate amount of reading material and work. We’ll let this have a try.”
