City council has approved its regular and executive committee meeting schedule for 2023 and added an extra meeting in December to ensure there is no long delay before the first meeting in January 2024.
During its Oct. 11 executive committee meeting, council voted 4-3 to approve a recommendation to accept the new schedule, with meetings on Dec. 4 and 18. In favour were councillors Jamey Logan, Doug Blanc, Heather Eby and Dawn Luhning, while opposed were councillors Crystal Froese and Kim Robinson and Mayor Clive Tolley.
The recommendation is not official until council approves it during the next regular meeting.
Reviewing the schedule
City clerk Tracy Wittke reviewed the proposed schedule, highlighting that fewer reports are presented in July and August compared to June or September. This results in those two summer months being shorter in length compared to the rest of the year.
Nine out of 16 cities in Saskatchewan changed their meeting schedules this past July and August, she continued. Regina reduced its meeting schedule over the summer; some municipalities removed one meeting from either July or August; and Saskatoon remained as is.
If an event or emergency arises during the summer — or any time of year — the mayor may call a special meeting under section 9 of the procedure bylaw to handle the situation, Wittke said. Calling such a meeting, however, would only occur in “very exceptional circumstances.”
It is council’s usual practice to cancel meetings during the Christmas season, which means there would only be one regular and executive committee meeting that month, on Dec. 11, she added. If necessary, this would also allow time between Dec. 4 and 8 for budget deliberation meetings.
Concerns with the schedule
While the report says council would meet only once in December 2023 — on the 11th — Luhning thought they should have two meetings, on the 4th and 18th. Otherwise, there would be a gap of five weeks and council wouldn’t meet again until Jan. 8, 2024.
She then moved a recommendation to meet on those two days.
City manager Jim Puffalt pointed out that city administration “typically” schedules budget meetings on Dec. 4 and 6 of that month.
In response, Wittke noted that city administration has not yet set the budget meeting schedule for 2023, which usually happens in October.
Luhning said she understood that budget meetings usually run from Nov. 27 to Dec. 11, but those meetings were for that issue. She noted that there might be other issues or items of business council must handle before year’s end. She reiterated her concern about not meeting until five weeks later, in January 2024.
“I think we’re going to see an awful lot of each other through the period of December. From now till December, we’ll be in many, many meetings of budget,” said Mayor Clive Tolley. “I think one council meeting in the middle of that would be sufficient.”
Froese agreed, pointing out council has two budget meetings in November and two in December, similar to last year. She thought it would be fine if the mayor or chairperson of executive committee chose to call an extra meeting in December.
“But mostly, our focus during the last four weeks from November to December is on budget. And that’s kind of an all-encompassing thing,” she added. “Those are usually typically scheduled for three to four hours each.”
Council then approved the recommendation to accept the 2023 schedule with suggested changes.
The next executive committee meeting is Monday, Oct. 24.
