First Council session serves as Appointment Day for new membership

With the new City Council now in place following a 5 PM ceremony in the Council chambers, the newly elected members got to work with some housekeeping as their first duties as part of their debut 7PM regular council session, making a range of appointments to cover off Council and Regional responsibilities for the year ahead.

The first of the roll call of appointments was to set up the schedule for the position of Acting Mayor for the year ahead, with a Council member designated each month to fill in for the Mayor should he not be available.

The list for the year ahead looks as follows:

January --  Councillor Niesh
February -- Councillor Adey
March -- Councillor Skelton-Morven
April / May -- Councillor Randhawa
June / July -- Councillor Mirau
August / September -- Councillor Cunningham
October -- Councillor Adey
November -- Councillor Skelton-Morven
December -- Councillor Niesh

To finish off 2018, Councillor Cunningham will serve as Acting Mayor for the months of November and December.


The Council membership also approved the schedule of Council meetings for 2019, with twenty regular council sessions set to take place in the year ahead.

The 2019 City Council Schedule
click on image to enlarge

As for appointments, council members selected those who will serve on the Regional District Board and Northwest Regional Hospital Board for the year ahead.


Northcoast Regional District

Councillor Mirau nominated Mayor Lee Brain and Councillor Barry Cunningham as the two representatives for the City.

With the City allocated 7 votes on Regional District, it was recommended that Mayor Brain receive four of those votes, with Councillor Cunningham to hold four.

Alternate members for Regional District will be Councillors Niesh (primary) and Randhawa (secondary).

Northwest Regional Hospital Board

Councillor Mirau recommended that both Mayor Brain and Councillor Cunningham hold those posts as well, noting how the Regional District and Hospital District provide for synergies between the two boards. Mayor Brain noted that both groups generally meet on the same day.

For Alternates Councillors Adey and Randhawa were selected by the Council members.

Both Boards come with additional compensation for those that have been selected to serve on them and are in attendance for those respective meetings.

For a look at more items related to Monday's City Council session see our Council Timeline feature here.

Further notes on Monday's debut session can be explored on our Council Session archive, while a wider overview of City Council Discussion themes can be found on our Council Discussion Archive page.


Cross posted from the North Coast Review