Crowsnest Pass Council Meeting Nov 2, 2010

Tuesday Nov 2 Meeting of Council

Another light agenda:

No public Hearings

Agenda was adopted with an addition personnel in Camera added by Councilor Mitchell, and the Xmas parade route requested by the Chamber of Commerce under other business
Motion to accept was passed Unanimously

Previous Minutes Both Meeting of Oct 26, (Organizational and Regular Council) were accepted Unanimously

Delegations: Just one as previously reported Lisa Sygutek made a presentation to Council explaining the advantages of advertising in both local papers.
(I will provide more information about the presentation later)

Administration Report:
CAO Lundy gave a presentation, speaking regarding this being his last meeting of Council thanked everybody he had been involved with during his time here.
Spoke to the amount of development permits in town this year, noticed that there are two major projects on the books (Fas Gas renovation and the Devon Wind Turbine)
Notified that the Hillcrest Lagoon would be commissioned by the end of November
All stimulus projects will be completed by the end of March, also suggested that's letters of thanks be sent to the provincial and federal governments
Also corrected a misquote by Ms Sygutek she had stated that the advertising RFP's were for three years, he stated that they were for one year and that both papers were also asked to look at the option of a three year agreements.
A question was asked regarding the relationship between the Municipality and Stantec, how it was determined that Stantec would do all of the municipal engineering. The CAO stated that RFP had gone to a number of engineering firms in 2005/06.

Note: I racked my brains on this one I did not remember that RFP coming back to council in that time frame and I checked the minutes from that time frame, I could not find a motion of council accepting a RFP in those years for engineering (Maybe I missed it)
There was no other administrative reports.
Motion was made to send a letters of thanks to the various Government level passed Unanimously
Motion was made to accept Administrative Reports passed Unanimously

Business arising from the minutes:
Subdivision and Development Appeal Board had two members appointed at the previous meeting only one was required
Motion was made to accept Councilor Gallant on the board passed Unanimously
Motion was made to accept Councilor Londsbury as the alternate also passed Unanimously

Correspondence
Letter from Luke Ouellette regarding the AltaLink Transmission Lines Motion was made to send a letter to Alberta Enviroment which was passed Unaimously

Letter from Spray Lakes Regarding an open house at the Heritage Inn in Pincher Creek Nov 18th 3pm to 8pm, Motion to accept as Information passed Unanimously

Committee Reports
None presented

Bylaws
Bylaw 810, 2010 was presented for first reading Motion passed Unanimously it will now be advertised.

Notices of Motion
Mayor Decoux moved this to later in the meeting after the In camera section

Other Business
Task Force Creation
Mayor Decoux informed council that he is working on this it will consist of no more than seven people, will be completed within 90 days from its conception. He will be bringing it back for council to review at next weeks G +P meeting
Motion was made to accept passed Unanimously

Purchase of chairs for Mayor and Council
Motion was passed Unanimously to spent up to $200 per chair to replace present chairs.
Mayor Decoux also requested that a policy be drawn up for replacing furniture.

Stake out of Construction Site Policy
This was tabled by council due to concerns regarding the language and intent of the policy motion passed Unanimously

Crowsnest Minor Hockey Alberta Pee Wee Championship Tournament
Late March Minor Hockey is attempting to bring the Pee Wee Championship tournament to the Crowsnest Pass (seven teams), they requested Council to give a letter of support which they did by Unanimous vote and requested that fees be waived for that weekend 45 hours of ice time at $57.40 per hour, in return Minor Hockey would make a donation to assist the Municipality in purchasing netting for the Complex.

Xmas parade route
The Chamber requested approval for a road closure for a Xmas parade Motion was passed Unanimously to accept

Council Member Reports
Councilor Mitchell spoke to a Protective Services Meeting he had attended and a Council Orientation put on by George Cuff, Mayor Decoux also spoke about the Cuff orientation and thanked the previous council for providing an excellent report that will provide great guidance for the new Council.

Public Input
None

At that point Council voted Unanimously to take a short break and go into Camera.

Responses to concerns raised at the forum

I wrote down the concerns raised at the forum over the next week I will attempt to answer as many as I can. The first one was the issue of the 4-3 and the secret meeting of council members.





Election 2010-Did you know?

During the debate over the Crowsnest Centre the Mayor created the impression that the 4-3 vote was a common process,

More than 95% of council motions are NOT determined by 4-3.

On the Centre debate it was, but not on many other issues.

All seven members of council dug in their heals and took a strong position. Nobody asked Irwin, Taje or Mitchell why they did not change their stand?

The Mayor and his team raised the issue of councillors meeting outside of council chambers. Was this true? On the Centre issue - Yes.

Now let’s put the whole truth on the table and go to the municipal web site or stop at the office and ask for a copy of the Organizational Reports.

On Page 62 of the Cuff Report (2009) it states the following “Both the majority group on Council and those deemed to be the opposition have met as separate groups before council meetings to discuss the issues”

On Page 39 of the Activation Analysis Report (2000), it states the following “There is currently a perception of block voting by the Mayor and councillors, with many items receiving the same spilt vote”

Its very interesting to hear the group of three scolding the other members of council for what they were doing themselves, and in some cases doing so for ten years or more.

For more information check out my Blog at crowsnestpasshome.blogspot.com/ or phone at 563 4128, email deanward4@msn.com.

On October 18 vote for Dean Ward