Meetings here are starting to merge, overlap and bump time slots for other meetings.
June 26 was a case in point, where a special meeting was called prior to a previously scheduled working meeting with staff.
The special meeting regarding Station Road was held behind closed doors under the in-camera definition of legal matters and potential litigation.
The meeting was only intended to be 30 minutes long based on the revised start time of the night’s second meeting. However, it lasted over two hours with the special meeting ending around 9:44pm – and the issue remained unresolved.
During that time, members of the public waited outside in the lobby, though one person left, apparently because the closed session was taking so long.
While it is not the first time a meeting of council has continued so long it carried on to another meeting date, it is the first time another meeting has been essentially cancelled because of it. Although it was a thinner-than-usual agenda package, there were items that needed to be dealt with, such as the hiring of a new bylaw enforcement officer.
As council came out of the closed session meeting, Mayor Lou Maieron stated, “Unfortunately we have not much to announce from our closed session. And you’re not going to like this, but because of time constraints and two other matters, we’re going to defer the council/staff working meeting.”
At the same time, Maieron agreed the agenda could not be deferred completely as there were matters which needed to be looked at.
Councillor Barb Tocher suggested the items could be brought forward at the July council meeting.
The mayor again noted there were items which needed to be dealt with. Tocher again pointed out that was not the concept of the staff/council meetings.
“It’s supposed to be a working/discussion meeting,” she said.
The mayor however, believed direction was needed on the bylaw enforcement officer’s position even if there was no decision made that night.
According to Maieron, over 90 people had applied for the position. He said the town could undertake an initial review to reduce the number to a workable level and to strike a working committee to deal with those applications. Maieron then suggested the acting CAO and the treasurer work to cut the number of applications down.
Acting CAO Kathryn Ironmonger pointed out council had yet to adjourn the original special meeting and move into its working meeting.
The mayor said the only thing he believed council still needed to deal with was the bylaw officer position.
“Are you asking we consider that right now?” Tocher asked.
Maieron suggested the acting CAO and the treasurer split the workload to reduce the applications to 10 to 15 or 20.
He asked if council wanted to use the expertise of councillor Deb Callaghan, a bylaw enforcement officer in another municipality and probably the most knowledgeable member of council on the issue.
Maieron asked if council wanted to appoint Callaghan as part of an ad hoc committee with the two staff members to make a recommendation.
Tocher said, “Mr. Mayor, we should also assign someone to the cenotaph project.” She asked whether someone could sign a $3,400 grant agreement from the federal government, or whether it was time sensitive. Ironmonger said it could be brought back to the next council meeting.
Maieron noted that since public works superintendent Larry Van Wyck was in the audience, he could present his report on rights of ways on county roads. Following that presentation Maieron commented “so we’ve dealt with the most pertinent matters.”
He asked if there other items needed to be addressed that night. Tocher recommended they be left to staff’s discretion, unless direction is needed.
“If it is just a discussion item, it can probably wait,” Tocher said.
Maieron wondered if the remainder of the June 26 working meeting could be placed at the beginning of the July 17 meeting.
Tocher said if a decision is needed, it should be part of the regular agenda, rather than dealing with the matter twice. She then put forward a motion that the remainder of the meeting be cancelled.
Ironmonger said the meeting could not be cancelled per se, because some of the issues were dealt with. The direction was to move the discussion items to the next council working meeting.
In explanation of the night’s events Maieron said “the mayor tried something and it didn’t work.” He said everyone had wanted to get their issues on the table and hopefully get them resolved.
“I tried to [schedule] and appropriate amount of time, and it didn’t work out that way,” Maieron said. He added the initial closed meeting dealt with potential litigation and there was nothing to report.
“We apologize and are now going to go back into closed session.”
Ironmonger noted council will meet to discuss the remainder of the earlier closed session following the July 3 public meeting at the Hillsburgh community centre.
The public meeting was held in regard to the town’s animal control bylaw. Maieron said there might be something to report on July 3.
Tocher clarified the discussion from the original closed session is not complete as no decision was made. That is why council will be meeting again on July 3 following the public meeting to get some clear direction regarding Station Road.
