Council Meeting of October 18, 2011 Crowsnest Pass

Municipality of Crowsnest Pass

Oct 18,2011

Organizational meeting:

Committee Appointments: The only change made during this process was Councilor Mitchell took a position on the Ag Services Board then in turn Councilor Saindon took Mitchell’s place on the Municipal Bargaining Committee.

(The significance of this will be revealed in the next few months as the collective agreement with CUPE expires December 31st)

Motion to accept passed unanimously.

Deputy Mayor: Councilors Gallant and Londsbury agreed to switch positions in the rotation.

Motion to accept passed unanimously.

Meeting adjourned at 7:07pm

Council Meeting of October 18, 2011

Public Hearing: None

Adoption of Agenda: Acting CAO Myron Thompson added a personnel item under In Camera. Also requested Council to defer Item B under other Business to a later date. Motion to accept the Agenda as amended was passed unanimously

Adoption of previous minutes:
Minutes of the Council Meeting of Oct 4, 2011, with a minor correction. Motion to accept was passed unanimously

Delegations: None

Administrative and Agency Reports:
1. Kim Lutz-Appointments to the Agricultural Services Board Council passed a motion to accept Kim Lutz’s recommendations for the Board unanimously.

2. Enmax Contract- Motion to accept passed unanimously.

3. Request to lease road allowance-This involves a garage that as been sitting on municipal property since the late 1970’s on 18ave in Coleman. Motion was made by Councilor Mitchell to have the owner remove the garage at their expense by April 31st 2012. Motion to accept was passed by a vote of 5-2 (Saindon and Gallant opposed)

Business arising from the Minutes: None

Correspondence:
1. Royal Canadian Legion Coleman branch. Looking for council member to attend Remembrance day services.

2. Municipal Heritage Board request for funding. They requested the municipality pay for the costs of accommodation and travel to attend a conference. Council informed administration that there was no money in the budget for these types of requests. Motion to deny the request was passed unanimously.

Committee Reports:

1. Minutes of August 23, 2011 G+P committee meeting, no discussion. Motion to accept passed unanimously.
2. Minutes of September 13, 2011 G+P committee meeting, no discussion. Motion to accept passed unanimously
3. Minutes of August 31, 2011 Subdivision and Development Board. Question raised regarding a retaining wall built in Bellevue, CAO Thompson told council the wall must be removed by the end of the month or legal action will begin. Motion to accept passed unanimously

Bylaws:
1. Bylaw 834, 2011- Regulated Rate Tariff (all 3 reading). Motion passed first reading unanimously, second reading passed unanimously, consideration for third reading passed unanimously, third reading passed 5-2 (Saindon and Saje opposed)
2. Bylaw 835, 2011 –Default Supplier Tariff. (all 3 reading). Motion passed first reading unanimously, second reading passed unanimously, consideration for third reading passed unanimously, third reading passed 5-2 (Saindon and Saje opposed)

Note: Several councilors complained about being forced by administration to vote on all three readings of the bylaws above. They did not have to, unlike most issues presented at council that require a majority of council to support them before they take effect. Bylaws can only be given all three reading at one meeting only if after second reading all members of council vote in favor of allowing third reading to take place any one councilor could have forced this issue to be readdressed at the next council meeting.

Notices of Motion: None

Other Business:
1. Municipal Heritage Board Appointments/Advertising for new members. Council appointed John Kinnear by unanimous vote to sit on this board to represent the Ecomuseum board. No motion made to advertise the other vacant position.

2. Property Tax Bylaw 821,2011 deferred to a later meeting.

Council Member reports: Some councilors listed of meetings they attended.

Public Input: None

Motion to go In Camera: Passed Unanimously

Crowsnest Pass Council Highlights for September 7.

Understanding that its less than six weeks to the next election, it would be very easy for council to sit back and be a lame duck authority.
One thing about this council whether you or disagree with their positions, we have not been scared to make decisions and that will continue until the last meeting of this term.

Some issues we dealt with on Tuesday were:

Agricultural Services Board,

Presently the Taxpayers incur the bulk of the cost of our weed control Inspector and program. By establishing a weed control board the municipal can access up to $150,000 of provincial funding.

Ski Hill Groomer.

The ski hill groomer is running at about 10000 more hours than it should be, and costing substantial dollars to maintain each year. We had a plan to apply for a $60,000 grant from CFEP and for the Municipality to finance the other $60,000 to be repaid by the savings on maintenance costs occurred annually. Our Community Services Director asked that Council authorize him to pursue a different grant that would provide for the total cost of the groomer.

Environmental Reserve Policy

Council took the position that we are going to put in place a 3m wide easement where ever possible along water ways to maintain the public access to the rivers and the ability to maintain walking trails.

Development Agreement Security

Council put in place a policy to ensure that no development will proceed in the future without security in place. I was pleasantly surprised when all of council voted in favour of this policy, with the exception of our good Mayor!

Election Update both myself and Councilor Cole announced Tuesday night that we will be running in the election on October 18th.

Rumour of the day, I am being told that there is a group trying to put together a slate of candidates that would support reopening and refurbishing the Crowsnest Centre.
(Interesting the Nokomis Report in 1989 dollars stated somewhere between $4-7million)