Tantramar Council is taking a step closer to following its own procedural bylaw.
Council meets tonight, with a closed session starting at 6:30pm to discuss two matters. After that, the public meeting begins, with an agenda that looks different than past meetings of council.
Tuesday’s meeting agenda includes a section entitled, “Mayor and Councillor Statements and Inquiries”. It’s the first time the section has been included in a meeting since the amalgamation of Tantramar 18 months ago, despite the fact that it is included in the Tantramar procedural bylaw, one of the first four founding bylaws of the newly amalgamated municipality.
On May 14, Councillor Debbie Wiggins-Colwell asked to make an observation before the regular meeting of council adjourned, but was told she could not by CAO Jennifer Borne, Clerk Donna Beal, and Mayor Andrew Black, who told her she could not speak because her item was not on the meeting’s approved agenda.
Local reporter Bruce Wark later pointed out in a story on warktimes.com, that a section for council statements is actually included in the town’s own bylaw, despite it never being included on a meeting agenda.
Now that the section for Mayor and Councillor Statements and Inquiries is listed, it’s still not clear how the Mayor and senior staff will treat the section during the meeting, whether councillors would be required to request to speak in advance, or if they will simply be given an opportunity for statements and enquiries, as is the practice in the city of Moncton.
‘Consent agenda’ could now be used properly
There’s another change in Tuesday’s agenda that also brings it closer in line with the town’s own procedural bylaw: the use of a consent agenda section.
Tantramar’s bylaw allows council to use a consent agenda as a quicker way to deal with uncontroversial housekeeping items. Items on the consent agenda are grouped together and can be voted on as one omnibus motion, with one vote.
But for the past year and a half, almost all items that had been previously discussed at council’s committee of the whole meetings have been listed under the ‘Consent Agenda’ section in council agendas, even though they have never been dealt with as a group, and are always voted on individually.
For the July 9th agenda, just five previously discussed items are listed under ‘Consent Agenda’, with another seven items under another section. That indicates the possibility that council will actually use the consent agenda as it is described in their bylaw.
Before voting on the group of consent agenda items, councillors can ask to have any or all removed and put on the agenda to be discussed individually.
The consent agenda items for tonight include an helmet policy for the civic centre rink, a rental policy for civic centre signs, road closures for Moonlight Madness, and permission for the Sackville Farmers Market to apply for a liquor license for a Fall Fair event.
Time off for strategic planning
The consent agenda also includes a proposal for council to skip two of its regularly scheduled meetings this summer. The idea presented by CAO Jennifer Borne in June is to forego the July committee of the whole meeting scheduled for July 22, and the regular council meeting slated for August 13.
Borne told councillors at their June 24 committee of the whole meeting that this would give staff and council a break in their meeting schedule until August 26.
“If there’s any business that needs to be conducted during that period, we would of course hold a special council meeting to move that forward,” said Borne, noting that the primary focus for staff this summer would be the development of the five year strategic plan for the municipality.
“Decreasing the workload associated with the council package preparation and attendance at meetings will free up resources for strategic planning,” said Borne.
Tantramar Staff have previously said the strategic planning project underway this summer would include public consultation, though how and when that will play out is still unknown.
Skipping summer meetings is something some other small municipalities do. Borne’s report to council listed a few of those, and also pointed out the Local Government Act only requires council to have four regular meetings per year.
Councillor Allison Butcher said ultimately she was planning to support the proposal. “When I first read this, my first thought was, oh, I’m not comfortable with this, because the optics are that we’re taking the summer off,” said Butcher. But she says after some thought she concluded “it’s important for me to trust that staff says they’ve got a lot to do in the summer with the strategic plan, and therefore we should do it this way.”
Loitering bylaw back on the agenda
In addition to its consent agenda, council will consider a number of other items at their meeting tonight, including a new Loitering Bylaw for Tantramar.
The clerk’s office is bringing back the by-law after it was rejected by council at their June 11 meeting.
This time, The word “begging” has been removed from the bylaw, and it has been renamed “A By-Law Relating to Loitering and Soliciting in Tantramar”
The new bylaw bans repeated soliciting after a negative response, and also bans soliciting in a way that might obstruct or impede traffic. It also proposes that street musicians be exempt from both those provisions.
The previously rejected bylaw outright banned asking for money in public places, and also left in outdated references to door-to-door book sellers.
Before council officially considers the new bylaw tonight, they are slated to hear a presentation about it from a member of the public. Nicole Bulmer has signed up to speak to the proposed bylaw. That will happen in the early part of the meeting, while consideration of the bylaw itself will take place near the end.
Beale and Inch apply for rezoning
There are also some planning items on the July 9 agenda. Council will be asked to cancel the development agreement that applies to the Pizza Delight and Payzant’s Home Hardware properties on Mallard Drive, so that both will simply fall under the current highway commercial zone for Sackville.
And Beale and Inch construction has applied to have their York Street property rezoned from Urban Residential to Sackville’s Industrial/Business park zone.
The construction company wants to add a building to their site, which is currently ‘grandfathered in’ as a non-conforming use, and has been for about 50 years. But in order to build a new building on the site, the property would need to be rezoned.
The site sits between the residential area of Raworth Heights and a provincial department of transportation and infrastructure maintenance yard, as well as other residences along York Street.
Council will also take another look at a revised confidentiality policy, and hear a motion from Councillor Micheal Tower, as well as notice of Motion from Councillor Matt Estabrooks. Mount Allison Students’ Union representative Lucy Rae will present to council, and Active Living director Matt Pryde will pitch an expanded event at Fort Beausejour for this year’s National Acadian Day celebration.
The meeting starts with an in camera session tonight at 6:30pm. The public portion of the meeting will begin after that.
