City Hall functions for public may shift to by Appointment Only basis

More changes to access to
City Staff and officials
is on the way in Prince Rupert

Prince Rupert City Hall, a facility which had already seen some significant reductions in Public Access, may be even harder to get into in the weeks and months to come.

That  as City Council reviews its options in the COVID period and examines some recommendations from City Manager Robert Long.

Speaking at Monday's Council Session, as part of a COVID Review portion of the night, the City Manager provided a glimpse at what may soon be the Standard Operating Procedures for City Hall for those looking to contact civic staffers for permits, inquiries and other items on the day to day list of civic business.

As part of his presentation, the City's top bureaucrat offered a stark reality for the public when it comes to access to city staffers and public officials at the Third Avenue Municipal building.

"People are just not going to have the freedom to come and go as they see fit, they're going to have to get an appointment so we can manage it, to make sure there is not more people than we can legally get inside the downstairs office, cause there is only room for two people" -- City Manager Robert Long, on the plan forward for a return to some civic business

Council members did not provide for much in the way of discussion on the proposal to limit access to one or two persons at a time, with only Councillor Cunningham following up on the City Managers comments.

"When you're talking about appointments for City Hall, with multiple departments, how is that going to work and how long? It's difficult to sort of put a time limit on somebody coming in for a development permit and things like this, so is there going to be one appointment at a time, or multiple appointments?" -- Councillor Barry Cunningham

In response Mr. Long noted that there are space limitations in the entry office on the side of City Hall, which can only accept two visitors at a time, noting that a sign would be placed outside of the building to advise residents that anyone requiring assistance will be required to phone a number that will be posted to book an appointment.

"Probably For now there will be one appointment at a time, the way we anticipate it is that ...  part of the problem is the pinch point is getting in and out of the building, so we have to manage that people stay the distance  and we can't have more than two people in the front office.  So, what we'll do is, we'll have a sign outside which will give a number to phone, if you haven't got an appointment you phone this number to get an appointment, if you're standing outside and want to come in; or you can make arrangements to have an appointment and then we can manage who comes and who goes, but we're only going to be able to have two people at a time" -- City Manager Robert Long

Mr. Long noted that City staff are watching how other communities were addressing access issues, with the City to move forward on their plan once they get more guidance and authorization from the province.

Should they reduce the access under the guidelines of their COVID response, it would make for yet more changes to how the public can seek information from the municipal government.

Back in 2017, with little discussion and even fewer notes as to why, the City shut out much of the previous access to City Hall to the public.

Closing the main entry doors and shifting any approach to civic officials to a side entrance on the east side of the building, or by way of phone or email correspondence.

At the time it was noted that the doors were locked as an additional security measure due to written threats, though the city never expanded on those threats.

A follow up on the situation in February 2018 from Councillor Barry Cunningham made for the only public inquiry on the topic; though little information on the subject was shared at that time either, other than that the move was considered a permanent decision.

February 18, 2018 -- City Hall front doors to remain locked as part of safety and management plans
December 17, 2017 -- With a threat uttered to staff, the City of Prince Rupert changes policies related to access to City Hall and Municipal officials

On a different element of community engagement, Council also discussed the future prospects for the Committee of the Whole process, the once a month public opportunity for residents to ask questions or raise concerns with Council members.

The engagement process has been suspended by Council for the last two months and towards a return the outline was still rather sketchy, with the City Manager making note of their work on the issue, however he did not provide for much detail as to what a return may look like.

"We're trying to figure out how to have a Committee of the Whole, and still meet all the requirements. That may take us a while, to get to and understanding to what we can do there."-- City Manager Robert Long on a possible return for public engagement through the Committee of the Whole process

Mayor Brain also made note of how staff were working towards resolving the ability to host a Committee of the Whole, holding out some hope that they may have a plan for that in time for the May 25th session.

That observation was well received by Councillor Adey, who observed how he too was hopeful that staff could resolve the outstanding issues to have a solution in place by the May 25th session.

You can review the discussion on the theme from the City's Video Archive starting at the eleven minute mark.




 For more notes related to Monday's City Council session see our Council Timeline Feature here.

A wider overview of Council discussion themes can be found from our Archive page here.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review.