Taking care of business

Sharon McLeay
Times Contributor

 

To handle business in a fair and informed manner, Town of Strathmore staff has developed a procedural bylaw that provides a guideline for council decision-making processes, and mandates for various committees appointed by council.
Lawyers reviewed the draft, and the document follows direction under the Municipal Government Act.
“Administration’s focus was to ensure that council’s procedures fully support efficient and effective decision making,” said Jennifer Sawatski, town clerk.
The document has specific guidelines for council actions on day-to-day business and subsections of their specific duties. Council establishes all committees and appoints members, and there is an annual review of the committees. Bylaw 16-18 lists the procedures for organization and elections of committee chairs, guidelines for aspects of meetings and public interactions. The complete bylaw is on the Town of Strathmore website.
Topics considered for council meetings fall under the agenda and are set seven days prior to the council meetings. Submissions for the agenda must be in writing and addressed to the town clerk, who confers with the chief administrative officer (CAO) regarding action taken for the submission. They refer it to committee or to council, or just have administration reply.
If the matter is not clearly set out and signed, with the name and address of the writer included, the clerk may disregard the communication. Other factors that may reject a submission is non-factual, vexatious, abusive or unclear information.
Town of Strathmore councillor Rocky Blokland stated that under section 86 of the bylaw, the ability of the clerk to disregard a citizen’s communication seemed in violation of their individual rights.
“Are we not taking away our democratic rights of the people of Strathmore with this?” he asked.
When council calls a public hearing, those residents who want to speak must submit a written request by noon Wednesday prior to the meeting date. No late submissions are accepted. Presenters are limited to their topic and encouraged to keep presentations under 10 minutes. At public hearings, a person has five minutes to address council and cannot speak more than once.
Council meetings are to run until 9 p.m., but can be extended by one hour or adjourned to another date, by a two-thirds vote of council.
There are also modes of conduct for the public: disruptive individuals can be asked to leave the meeting, with fines set from $200 to $10,000 for refusing to leave, and RCMP may be called if necessary.