Council Meeting of January 18, 2011

Council Meeting of January 18, 2011

Public Hearing: None

Adoption of Agenda

Additions:
#5 under other business-High water levels in East Coleman
#6 Office Procedures

Under In Camera #1 Land

Motion to accept Agenda as amended passed unanimously

Adoption of Previous Minutes Jan 4, 2011
Correction, Motion made by Councilor Mitchell that states Councilor Mitchell abstained it should have been Councilor Londsbury
Motions to accept corrected Minutes passed unanimously

Delegations: None

Admin and Agency Reports: None

Business Arising from Minutes: None

Correspondence: Two letters one from John Pundyk and the other from Shane Stewart regarding tax increases. Both spoke to the high cost of taxes in the Crowsnest Pass, and the impact on attracting new people to the area.

Councilor Mitchell stated that both letters were good but offered no solutions to the municipalities financial problems, Councilor Saje stated that the solution is not to raise taxes.

Committee Reports: Minutes from G+P meeting of Jan 11,2011
Motion to accept minutes as presented passed unanimously

Bylaws: None

Notice of Motions: None

Other Business:
1. Get Outdoors Weekend: Motion made to support this initiative passed unanimously

2. Elected Officials Course: Motion for all of council except Councilor Saje will participate in an Economic Development Course in Pincher Feb 3, motion passed unanimously.

3. Councilor Saje requested approval for absence for the Feb 1st meeting, motion passed unanimously

4. Budget 2011: Some points regarding the budget

Proposed Budget sitting at a 5.3% increase

Various members of council spoke to a tax increase of between 0% and a small increase (?)

Administration to bring back program/service reductions for the meeting of January 25, and clarification for individual councilors concerns.

Various new positions are included in the budget-additional person in the HR department, one new programmer in the Recreation area, a full time Agricultural service field man, a Foreman for public works, and a part time position for the finance department, also two additional casuals over last year usage. (This will be served up Jan 25 as a cost reduction)

There was a lot of debate around the performance of facilities and various services/programs.

Prior to the debate Councilor Saje attempted to make a motion on the budget which the Mayor requested that he hold of on until the debate took place.

After the debate Councilor Londsbury moved to table the budget until Jan 25, to which Councilor Saje stated that he had attempted to make a motion prior that dealt with the budget.

The Mayor asked Councilor Londsbury to withdraw his motion, to allow Councilor Saje motion to be dealt with.

Councilor Saje then made a motion to accept the 2011 budget with the following conditions:

1.The $230,000 for the back hoe to be removed from the budget
2. IT archiving to be suspended until outside options can be looked at
3. IT Desktop be reduced to $10,000
4. IT soft ware be reduced to $12,000
5. Parade Float be reduced to $5,000
6. All departments with the exception of culture, and FCSS have their operating budgets reduced by 7%
7. No hiring for 2011
8. All non union staff be limited to a 2% wage increase for 2011
9. Municipal advertising be limited to $25,000
10. $65,000 be side aside to upgrade the municipal web site and for rebranding the municipality

After debate, and with everybody knowing that this was coming back on Jan 25th, the motion was defeated by a vote of 6-1 with only Councilor Saje in support.

Motion was then made to table the budget until Jan 25, which passed unanimously

6. High water levels in east Coleman: Councilor Mitchell requested that admin to bring this back at a later meeting providing council with information

7. Office procedures: Admin advised that they are working on this and will bring back at a later date.

Council Member Reports: Several councilors spoke about meeting they had attended.

Public Input: Mayor did not offer the opportunity for anybody to speak.