Monday's Council Session deliberations suggest need for better information relay to city residents

Prince Rupert City Council hosted a short Monday afternoon
session to approve zoning and a contract award for the
new RCMP detachment 

The Special Council Session of Monday that delivered finally zoning and a contract approval towards the new RCMP detachment has in a way highlighted a need for City Council members to revisit how they are approaching their work on behalf of the residents of Prince Rupert.

As we outlined on Tuesday, the Special Session was called for 3 PM on Monday, the regulations seemingly not requiring that an Agenda be posted, or any reports to be considered to be provided prior to the meeting for residents to review.

The site of the new
RCMP detachment at
McBride and First Ave E

The apparent urgency for the meeting was something that caught the eye of one of the five council members and Mayor Pond who were in attendance (only Councillor Skelton-Morven was not on hand for the meeting), 

In the early stages of Monday's afternoon council session, Councillor Nick Adey questioned why the work of the afternoon had to be dealt with by way of a Special meeting and what time pressures created the call to the Monday Afternoon session. 

So perhaps he may have had some concerns over the optics of how the topic was being presented and moved forward outside of the normal Regular Council process.

Even with a look at the Report prior to the meeting, one councillor still wasn't quite sure about one element of the presentation, something that is called the Progressive Design Build model.

With Councillor Barry Cunningham noting of the process underway as follows:

"So, the progressive design build model, which I really don't understand, but you say it's a thing of the future and present and it gives you more stability in pricing.  

But you're also saying that  the design isn't totally complete. 

So could it possibly go higher than the total?

We're not sure if he had a better understanding of the progressive design build model concept by the time that Council voted to approve the contract award on the day as part of their six minute meeting.

But if a Councillor, with access to all of the staff personnel and resources available at City Hall still isn't sure of what the City has planned, Councillors should think of the folks at home that probably have no idea as to what it's all about towards the project which has a cost somewhere between 25 to 26.1 million dollars.

The comments to our Tuesday story, while not a complete overview of community thought, do serve as a bit of a focus group as to how some in the community may feel towards the level of communication between City Council, City staff and the residents paying the taxes towards the many projects underway.

Whether it's the contract provisions of the RCMP build, or the range of other projects past, present or in the future, Council needs to provide a better relay of information to the public to better understand how and why they are spending money.

The same is valid for how the City runs its growing list of enterprises. 

From the relationship between the City and its longest running attachment to CityWest, or other areas such as the Prince Rupert Airport, Watson Island,  Legacy Inc., recently proposed Land partnerships, or the recent rumination towards a Private-Public concept for the city's water supply. 

There appears to be a thirst for much more in the way of delivering the information that residents should know. 

The City of Prince Rupert has far more financial commitments and active involvement in the creation of enterprises than most other communities. Areas of civic investment that other communities don't seem to have the same level of interest towards.  

Explaining how much oversight Council has towards any of their endeavours and providing for more frequent updates on all of them is an area where City Council may want to make a resolution or two towards on New Years Eve.

Something that could carry this new collective forward through their first full year of service to community in 2023.

For the roughly thirty two percent of the population that voted on October 15th, the job description for the Council members should include serving as the advocates for the residents of the city.  

That doesn't always seem to be the focus at City Hall, with Council in the recent  past more or less serving as the promotion team for what has morphed into Prince Rupert Inc.

Taking the pulse of some of the concerns from the public of late, more of the discussion on how they are approaching their plans needs to be done in public session and through public forums. 

Inviting those in charge of the enterprises, such as CityWest, YPR, Legacy Inc, or any range of civic department heads and asking the questions that the public seem to have about their areas of expertise could serve to give residents a sense of participation in the city's discussions, rather than just as observers after the fact.

More notes on City Council themes is available from our Council Discussion archive page.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review