A new year, a (mostly) new Council and things got off to a light start in the first Council meeting of 2019.   In fact besides the passing of previous meeting minutes, there was only one public item on the Agenda.

Agenda:  January 7, 2019 Council Agenda

And that item was the awards for the 2018 Christmas Lights Contest.  The award winners were:

  • Cindy and Uby Paul
  • Karen and James Balt
  • The Bridges Family

Congratulations to the winners.  More info can be found in the agenda, in case you want to see if their displays are still up.

Under New Business, Councillor Bothwell requested information on the expense policy for the Committee of Adjustment and other Committees, ahead of the Committee selection process.  Town Manager Brandt stated that the Admin & Finance Committee would bring forth a memo or other information on these policies.

Similarly, she commented that she had not seen expense reporting from the previous Council as per Section 284 of the Municipal Act and requested a detailed itemization.  This section states:

 284 (1) The treasurer of a municipality shall in each year on or before March 31 provide to the council of the municipality an itemized statement on remuneration and expenses paid in the previous year to,

(a) each member of council in respect of his or her services as a member of the council or any other body, including a local board, to which the member has been appointed by council or on which the member holds office by virtue of being a member of council;

(b) each member of council in respect of his or her services as an officer or employee of the municipality or other body described in clause (a); and

[…]

Councillor Sharpe asked residents to contact him or other members of Council on whether to “opt-out” of retail cannabis sales.  He stated that with sentiment strong on both sides of the question and that citizen input is important and Council is ready to listen.

On closing of New Business, Mayor Jordan thanked everyone who came out to the Mayor’s Levee this past Sunday and stated it was a success.  The response from residents was overwhelming and they may have to make bigger plans for next year’s event in 2020.

The last item on the agenda was a closed session item on a “Staff Vacancy”.  While this author and other members of the public were excluded from the discussion, an advanced search of a “popular Internet search engine” has determined which role in the Town will need to be filled.

But that information will be saved for the next post.