Town discusses new letters of support policy

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Town of Strathmore Committee of the whole discussed the town’s letters of support policy during the Feb. 14 meeting.

The purpose of the discussion was to introduce the policy to councilors, discuss what types of correspondence it applies to, and ensure it would receive support from councilors. 

Letters of Support Policy 1109 was drafted to streamline the process for issuing specific types of common letters from the town, with the goal to reduce the time between receiving a request and issuing a letter. 

As of the time of the meeting, the current process could see a period of two to three weeks from the time a need was identified, to council making a decision regarding the request. 

Additionally, under the current process, depending on the urgency of the request for a letter of support, deadlines may be missed due to the length of the process, or special council meetings must be called in order to expedite the decision-making process.

The new process would have the mayor serving as the spokesperson for the town and responding to the correspondence in accordance with the Municipal Government Act, provided the documents are consistent with a council approved plan, policy, bylaw, or previously approved resolution. 

An example of such a letter which recently was sent by the town was regarding the mid-size cities mayor’s caucus, being a “thank you” letter.

Four types of letters were identified within the proposed policy, being letters of support, of thanks, of recognition, and internal support requests. 

Administration presented before council seeking feedback on the ability to in certain instances, remove the step that requires all types of correspondence come back to a council meeting prior to receiving a signature, as well as to allow for the option of the signature to be that of the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO). 

This contingency would allow for the CAO to address urgent and appropriate documents within an appropriate timeframe, should the mayor and deputy mayor be unable or unavailable.

Conditions on the mayor or CAO being allowed to sign letters without the need to return to a council meeting for approval would hinge upon the conditions that no changes would be made to council’s previously established position on the topic, no commitments or funding requests would be outlined in the letter, and there would be no additional approval of requests. 

The Committee of the Whole did not at the time approve the policy, though it will come before council at a later date during a regular meeting.