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No recreation committee for Kincardine yet By Liz Dadson |
Kincardine Council To Comment on this article Click Here |
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Kincardine council is not ready to set up a recreation committee yet. Because the Feb. 2 and Feb. 9 meetings were postponed due to stormy weather, council had its first run at an actual committee-of-the-whole system meeting Feb. 16. Council had approved the change in governance in January, and is now operating under a true committee-of-the-whole model, with a policy chairperson and department head bringing issues to all of council, rather than to individual committees. Right off the bat, recreation policy chairman councillor Kenneth Craig and recreation director Karen Kieffer presented a request for a public advisory group for recreation to deal with policy development, programs and strategic planning concepts. The public advisory group would be appointed by council to provide information and advice on policy development for a specific policy area. The group would include six members of the public (voting members), one policy chairman (voting member), one senior manager (non-voting member), and one secretary (non-voting member), for a total of nine members. The terms of reference call for the advisory group to draw up conclusions on various policies, programs and concepts, with the senior manager (department head) presenting a written report to committee-of-the-whole. The policy chairman would represent the point of view of the advisory group at the committee-of-the-whole. Minutes of meetings would be recorded and adopted as per previous committees, and then made public. "I can't support the proposal at this time," said councillor Maureen Couture. "It's too soon for us to determine whether we need a public advisory group. The policy-making is up to council to decide. We need to provide total access to council by the people whenever they want to address issues." She also objected to the cost of a secretary to record the minutes which goes back to the old hybrid committee system that council just voted out. "There's also a time delay, with minutes of meetings approved months later."
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Couture
added that if public advisory groups are
struck, members of council should not be on them. "They should consist
of members of the public and bring reports directly to council or
through
the policy chairman." Councillor Candy Hewitt agreed, saying council was elected to make the hard decisions and be cost-effective. "We're shooting ourselves in the foot by creating this committee. We should give the new structure some time to see if it works." "I agree," said deputy mayor Anne Eadie. "I'd like to at least give the new committee-of-the-whole system a chance. We agreed to try it for two years then evaluate it. If a group has concerns about recreation, let them come to council and talk to us." She said the financial savings amount to $38,000 per year. "Over our four-year term, that's a lot of money that we could put toward pool upgrades." Mayor Larry Kraemer also agreed that the new system should be allowed a chance to work before setting up any public advisory groups. He suggested not creating any such groups until after council wrestles with the budget and the service delivery review next month. Council defeated the proposal to set up a public advisory group for recreation. Scrolling stops when you move your mouse inside the scroll area. You can click on the ads for more
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