Special meeting of Council Oct 29 2013

Short meeting of council took place after the organizational meeting:

Added to the agenda was South Saskatchewan Regional Plan under correspondence.
Request for Information and Freeze on Capital Expenditures under other business.

Highlights of the meeting:

Council Orientation on Dec 9 and 10 all council members will attend an orientation sessions with an expert on municipal affairs in Pincher Creek, this is a good educational session for new councilors and is done in conjunction with the two Pincher Creeks and Cowley to reduce costs.

Conventions-Mayor and two councilors will be attending conventions in November.

At dates to be determined on Nov 5 council will be given a tour of all municipal facilities, this as always been done for incoming council's it makes it easier to relate to the issues and decisions you will have to make on these various facilities over the next four years.

Council meeting schedule for December will be brought up on Nov 5, councilors given time to looks at dates.

Alberta Southwest Dinner-On Nov 6 there will be a dinner and meeting for all Councils and CAO's in Pincher Creek who belong to the Alberta Southwest Region to explain the functions and services provided by the group

Invitation from South Saskatchewan Regional Plan, on up coming meeting to review the draft plan that is available at www.landuse.alberta.ca  there will be meetings for the public to provide input from 4:30 to 7:30pm on Nov 5 at the Elks Hall, if you can not make it on that date it is also available in Pincher Creek same times on Nov 26 at the Community hall.

Request for Information:

Councilor Ward requested the following questions with the information to come back to council by Nov 5.

Provi    1. Provide Council with the complete MCNP budget. Including all GL accounts, and including Municipal Reserves.

2.         2. Provide Council with all Administration employment contracts along with their job descriptions for each and evaluations for the last two years.

3. Provide Council with all CUPE job descriptions.

4. Provide Council with an update on all outstanding CUPE grievances.

5. Provide Council with a list of all ongoing litigation and legal issues currently facing the                Municipality and all legal advice, if any, which was provided to the municipality on these subjects.

6.         6. Provide Council with an update on the Wolfstone development and RV Park project, including any legal opinions and possible solutions.

7.         7. Provide Council with an update on the Provincial Flood Recovery Program and what monies have been received and how they have been dispersed.     
Admi
A          Administration requested additional time to provide this information council agreed to have it brought back at the Nov 19 meeting. 

            Councilor Kovach attempted to make a motion to have all hiring and capital expenditures put on hold until council is provided the financial information it is looking for. CAO stated that the nine month financial update was being brought to council next week he requested that motion be with drawn until then Council agreed with that position. 

            It was a short meeting but very productive as far as beginning the flow of information between council and administration.     

Money well spent. You be the judge

Every year we the taxpayers of the Crowsnest Pass spend a minimum of $20,000 to send our elected officials to conventions put on by various organizations that lobby on behalf of the municipalities.

Some people (usually politicians that want to justify going to these conventions) contend that they are an excellent opportunity to network with other municipalities, to attend various courses offered by the province and the host organizations and to have an opportunity to meet with ministers and other various government officials.

Having attended a couple of conventions during my two terms on council, I determined and that is why I stopped going to them that they are a waste of taxpayers money. We should call a spade a spade, they are a perk for politicians.

You have approximately 450 municipalities in this province who will send somewhere between 2-3000 politicians to these events at an average cost of $600 plus per day.

Our municipality similar to many others meets and networks with their neighbor municipalities on a regular basis, they do not need to go to Edmonton or Calgary to do that.

The various courses and information that are offered at these functions could easily in this day and age of the internet be provided to interested elected officials in seconds.

The last justification made is the opportunity to meet with ministers, well let me tell you what that is like. If your lucky you will get a half a hour with a minister, you will be ushered into a room where the minister and a couple of his assistants will shake your hands, smile at you and listen very intently to your concerns. Then they will shake your hands again kick you out of the room and march in the next group then repeat that process 15-20 times.

In six years of being on council I can not remember one thing that this municipality gained by attending the various conventions.  

What as it cost us to send our elected officials to these conventions over the last three years?

Mayor Decoux $14,312

Councilors

Gallant $11,593

Sage $14,672

Gail $12,671

Londsbury $3654

Mitchell $6652

Saindon $2328

Total $65,882

Now I know some people will argue that is an insignificant amount in the grand scheme of running a municipality. This is a prime example of what is wrong with big government today that attitude. Every politician and I know they all will at least until October 21^st must understand that they are spending the taxpayers dollars. This may only be a $66,000 issue, but where is the line on how much taxpayers dollars is it all right to waste?  

Looking forward to my readers comments.   

Spending Tax Dollars in the Crowsnest Pass

On October 21st council had a discussion regarding the policy of sending members of council to out of province conventions. (Specifically the FCM convention) At a previous meeting a request was made by council to bring back the costs of attending conventions.

The following includes; costs of rooms, meals, mileage, registration etc basically everything except the daily reimbursement that councilors receive for attending conventions. ($160 per day per council member)

2005---$17374
2006---$18141
2007---$33028
2008---$19269 (Not a complete total yet because there is one more convention in November)

If we continue our present practice these costs will climb because we are now a member of the AAMDC which we were not involved with during the years 2005-2007.

The numbers above total $87,812 the question that needs to be asked here does the taxpayer receive value for this expenditure?

There is no question that at the conventions there are indeed the opportunities to meet with "the right" people and discuss issues important to the Crowsnest Pass.

There is no question that at these conventions there are indeed the opportunities to attend informative sessions that further educate councilors.

The question should always be when you are spending other people's money is there a cheaper way to do it? Does all of council need to go? can two or three members of council meet "the right" people? can two or three members of council attend training sessions and report back to the rest of council?

The way its been done in the past is history now, moving forward are there better ways to do this? These are questions that need to be addressed?