What to know about city council’s meeting cycle, and one complicated change

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Monday marked the first meeting of city council’s refreshed committees including the shrunken community and protective services committee. Reporter Jack Moulton explains the committee system, and why the smaller body already is presenting headaches.

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WHAT ARE COUNCIL’S STANDING COMMITTEES?

City council has four committees that meet on a three-week cycle, followed by a meeting of full council to finalize recommendations from the committees.

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Three of the four committees are made up of five council members, with strategic priorities and policy being made up of full council and the mayor.

Community and protective services covers topics including parks and recreation, housing and homelessness, bylaw enforcement and animal services.

Planning and environment covers all planning applications including rezonings, development and planning approvals, neighbourhood and area plans and business improvement areas.

Infrastructure and corporate services, a merged group between the former civic works and corporate services committees, will cover all city assets such as road, water, and sewer networks, but also the city’s governance including finances, human resources, elections and major facilities such as Canada Life Place.

Strategic priorities and policy covers public transit and transportation planning, council procedures, climate emergency and strategic planning and economic development.

WHAT ARE THEY FOR?

The committees are a space for politicians to hash out details of issues brought to their respective groups.

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Committees can allow for more debate, receive presentations and correspondence from the public or other bodies, and present recommendations for changes in policy or procedure to full city council.

The members vote on each item, creating a recommendation that goes to full council where a final vote on each individual matter is held.

WHY IS ONE SMALLER?

The five-member committees have their council members refreshed every year. The mayor can sit in and vote at all committees as a member if he chooses.

Last month, as politicians sought to repopulate the committees for the new year, there was no volunteer for the fifth member of the community and protective services committee, which forced Mayor Josh Morgan to use his strong mayor powers to reduce the membership to four, to avoid breaking up the committee’s responsibilities.

Community and protective services is made up of councillors Hadleigh McAlister, Sam Trosow, Jerry Pribil and David Ferreira, who is the chair.

WHY IS IT A PROBLEM?

A four-member committee could make it harder to meet the three-person quorum, the minimum number required in order to conduct business.

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In addition, the even number means tie votes, which are automatically defeated, are also a more common possibility.

Defeating items that return to committee after an approval from council, such as bylaw revisions, also can present a problem. A flip-flop over the city’s reworked fireworks bylaw in April drew accusations of violating the council code of conduct.

WHAT HAPPENED MONDAY?

Politicians got a taste of those issues Monday as they sought to endorse a tweaked special events policy, which regulates major outdoor events such as Sunfest and Rock the Park.

Ferreira and Trosow took issue with a rule allowing events to operate until midnight, but McAlister warned of a tie vote, meaning no recommendation gets sent to council. Politicians voted 3-1 to advance the policy changes, with Ferreira changing his vote while Trosow held firm.

Ferriera admitted the warning influenced his vote, but also he liked other elements and wished to see it brought to full council.

He warned of more potential problems, including bogging down regular council meetings with work of his committee in the event of defeated votes.

“It could be a challenge, I’m not sure how it’s going to be,” he said. “Just what we saw today on the very first meeting, it may be indicative of what we might see in the future.”

jmoulton@postmedia.com

@JackAtLFPress

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