City Council Preview: Monday, November 9, 2020

Judging by the rather light agenda for the first meeting of the month, the toughest challenge for the mayor and Council members on Prince Rupert City Council may be to ensure the folks at home can see their work this time around. 

That following what can only be described as a bit of a farce two weeks ago when the city could not get the broadcast to air and seemingly abandoned all attempts to provide for a follow up video for the public record.

A new month, brings a new hope we suppose, with the first public council session for November set for tonight at 7PM and one that will find the council members reviewing a number of reports, all of them from the City's Chief Financial Officer Corinne Bomben.

Among her notes for Council, the September Variance Report, the recommendations for Community Enhancement Grants and an update on the fees to be charged to residents in the years ahead for Water, Sewer and Waste services.

Council will also be asked to proclaim November 15-21 as Métis Awareness Week in Prince Rupert.

Providing that they have solved whatever mysterious technical difficulties that left us all in the dark two weeks ago, those with an interest in tonight's council session can view the Live Feed from the City website. or on Cable Television from CityWest Cable Channel 10/310.

Council members will also continue to make use of the Closed Council process this evening, as they meet tonight in a Special Closed Section at 5PM  citing two items from the Community Charter as the reason to exclude the public.

90.1  (c) labour relations or other employee relations

(e) the acquisition, disposition or expropriation of land or improvements, if the council considers that such disclosure could reasonably be expected to harm the interests of the municipality

Tonight's Closed session will mark the fifteenth time that Council has hosted a public excluded session so far this year.

You can review the Regular Council Agenda here.  

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REGULAR SESSION OF CITY COUNCIL

Adoption of Agenda and Past minutes -- Mayor Brain will review the agenda for the evening and Council will adopt the minutes of past meetings.

Resolutions

Report from the Chief Financial Officer   - Re: September 2020 Financial Variance Report -- The findings from the city's Financials for September  . (See page 9 of the Agenda) 

Report from the Chief Financial Officer - Re: 2021 Community Enhancement Grants  -- Ms. Bomben will relay the recommendations towards how much will be allocated towards each group and if any new organizations will be added to the city's list of Grant recipients   (See page  14 of the Agenda) 

Proclamation Request from the Prince Rupert and District  Métis Society Support -- . Council will be asked to declare November 15-21, 2020 as Métis Awareness week (See page  20 of the Agenda)

Bylaws

Report from the Chief Financial Officer -- Re: Water Utility Management Amendment Bylaw No. 3463, 2020 and Sanitary and Storm Sewer Utility Management Amendment Bylaw No. 3464, 2020 and Solid Waste Management Amendment Bylaw No . 3465, 2020 --  With the current Water, Sewer and Solid Waste rate bylaws set to expire at the end of this year, the CFO will outline the rate schedules for the next four years (See page 22 of the Agenda)

The evening will come to an end with any Additional Items as well as Reports, Questions and Inquiries from Members of Council.

Council members can  take advantage of the period to offer up any items or concerns that they have for consideration on the night. 

The Live broadcast of the City Council session can be found here, a video archive of past sessions is available here.

Our items of note related to the  November 9th session can be reviewed here. 

While our archive of all sessions for 2020 for Council is available here.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review.