Morinville Council Considers Consolidating Meetings for Longer, More Productive Sessions

by Colin Smith

Changes in the way Morinville Council operates may result in fewer but longer meetings.

An administration recommendation brought forward at council’s committee of the whole meeting on Tuesday, June 20, would see the number of regularly scheduled meetings drop to two per month from the current three.

The year’s scheduled council meetings would drop from 30 to 22.

The proposed change would take place by rolling council’s monthly committee of the whole meeting into its two regular meetings.

“One of the things that would not only respect your time but also cut down on the number of meetings in the month is combining the two into one,” Legislative Consultant Sandra Davis told council.

Chaired by the deputy mayor rather than the mayor, committee of the whole is a forum in which council members can more fully discuss matters without the formalities of a regular council meeting.

The new procedure would see committee of the whole become an item on the regular meeting agendas.

An advantage would be that motions relating to matters discussed in committee of the whole could be discussed and decided once council has moved back into the regular meeting format.

Voting on such motions would currently be delayed until the next regular council meeting, a week to three weeks away.

Cost savings could also come about through a reduction in the time town staff spend attending council meetings.

The possibility of lengthy meetings could be managed through the use of the consent agenda, which enables council to deal with agenda items without discussion, Davis said.

“I do like this,” said Deputy Mayor Scott Richardson. “Definitely more productive, and I also respect the amount of time administration puts into it.”

If approved, the change will take place with the beginning of council’s operating year in October.

At the June 20 meeting council also considered the dissolution of its agenda review committee.

Introduced as part of a procedures bylaw that came into effect in July 2018, the committee manages agendas and reviews items for council meetings.

Membership of the committee consists of the mayor, deputy mayor, chief administrative officer and legislative officer.

If the committee is dissolved, agenda information will come before council during its public committee of the whole sessions.

Davis noted that the matter arose with a request that administration look into having the agenda review committee include all council members.
In the process, it was discovered that council’s procedures need to be brought into line with the recently revised Municipal Government Act (MGA).

The act requires municipal chief administrative officers to make information that has been provided to one council member available to all council members as soon as possible.

“Amendments to the MGA have been quite clear that if one of you knows information, then you all need to know that information,” said Davis.

Mayor Simon Boersma said that one of the problems with the agenda review committee was that it became a “silo,” in which information was kept and not shared.

“This helps us move forward as a full council, not as individuals,” he said.

Council directed administration to bring forward amendments to the current procedures bylaw to make these changes.