“The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.”
Confucius
Chestermere’s new Mayor Colvin and 6 Councillors had a very busy week at City Hall moving mountains.
They were elected on October 18th, officially sworn in on October 26th, and by October 28th they held 4 Council Meetings! (1 Organization Meeting and 3 Special Meetings.)
The first Special Meeting on October 26th saw a packed Agenda with New Business Item 1 – Transparency of Elected Officials – Recorded Votes. Basically, this motion is to make all essential votes (votes that involve meaningful changes) to be automatically recorded (how each Councillor voted will be recorded in the Minutes) and made available to the public via an easily accessible button on the City’s website (no more wading through multiple pages of Minutes to find out how Council voted!) Motion was carried unanimously. Now we await city administration staff to create the easy access button on the City’s website!
Item 2 – Repeal of Policy 654, Public Conduct and Civil Discourse Policy. The highly controversial and much talked about policy that Mayor Colvin promised to address in his 120 Days Plan. After open discussion about the policy, some Councillors requested more information regarding content of the policy, in order to make an informed vote. While some of us feel certain that this policy should be repealed, myself included, I felt that Councillors asking for more information before voting gave value to the consideration process in the name of due diligence. In my opinion this demonstrates transparency and good governance. And isn’t this what we asked for?
Item 3 – Complete dissolvement and municipalization of company #1539874 (CUI). This item has been a hot topic for years when past Council promised to dissolve CUI but instead created a “shell” company. They’ve taken a lot of flack for making this choice, but I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt to say they made the best decision with what they knew at the time. I am not however, prepared to say the same about the pay they agreed to give to the figure head of this shell corporation, rumored to be in the neighbourhood of $200,000 per year. I say rumored, because apparently this information is not available to the public and even to Council. It also appears that this individual has no tasks to carry out and no responsibilities other than collecting their big pay cheque. Many of us knew something about this and vehemently queried it, but we couldn’t seem to get the previous Council to listen and respond with a straight
answer. During a year when so many of us were scrambling to try to keep our businesses alive or were out of work and trying to get by on government assistance, this person was pulling in big bucks for doing nothing! Are we mad about this? You bet we are! Why wouldn’t we be? We’ll pay our fair share of taxes, but for the love of all that’s right and good, please don’t fritter our tax dollars away on such bad decisions! If all Council needed was a person to stand as the figurehead of the CUI shell company, I’m certain that many of us would have offered to do it for a fraction of the price. Ultimately, the motion to dissolve this shell company was not carried due to complications and will be brought back to the table at a later date.
Item 4 was the Stop & Swap. Stop the $40 million fieldhouse project and swap the land for the new High School site. For those of you who are in support of the fieldhouse and concerned about the lack of recreation venues, don’t despair, there is a plan for that down the road, but one that is more in line cost wise. Meanwhile, by swapping the land earmarked for the fieldhouse to the new high school, the City saves a $2 million penalty charge. Long story on this penalty charge, but basically, it seems that previously poor negotiations and management were the cause of this situation. If you recall, some election candidates vowed there was no way to undo this deal without huge legal penalties, but according to Mayor Colvin there may be a way forward to fix this mess without the penalties. This deal is still in play, so no final report on this yet – but I like that Mayor Colvin has some suggestions for Council to consider and is willing to roll up his sleeves to try to put this right!
Item 5 – Return Chestermere Blvd. speed limit back to 80km/hr and direct staff to reprogram lights at Rainbow Road and Chestermere Blvd. to include a turning only sequence for east west traffic. Previous Council moved to reduce the speed limit from 80 km/hr to 60 km/hr, in an effort to reduce the risk of accidents for drivers turning at the intersection of Rainbow Road and Chestermere Blvd. Again, I’m not slamming previous Council on this decision, their intentions were good. But would reducing the speed be enough to reduce accidents? I don’t know for certain, but I don’t think it would. The motion to have the traffic lights at the intersection changed to include a “turning only” signal for east and west bound traffic may be more effective by taking the “guessing” factor out of the equation. “Guessing” that you can make your turn before the oncoming vehicle gets to the intersection is risky business! This may make the wait times at the lights a bit longer, but if it means fewer accidents – and we’ve seen some really bad ones at this intersection – then I think it’s well worth the extra few minutes! After discussion amongst council, this motion was amended to read that the speed limit would be returned to 80 km/hr AFTER the sequence of the turning lights had been set. Time will tell if this new plan is effective. The amended motion was carried.
Item 6 – Authorize an updated roadway lanes definition on West Chestermere Drive at Chestermere Blvd, providing northbound right and left turning lanes and straight through lane. No big issue here, just a little tweak – but an important one – to make roadways safer. Motion carried.
Item 7 – Begin review of East Acreages servicing solutions and rezoning alternatives. After discussion this was amended to include all annexed land. No hot button issue here but sets in motion much needed review work to be done. Amended motion carried.
Item 8 – Invite members and interested parties of the Golf Course to look for ways to permanently keep the Golf Course in Chestermere. Definitely a hot issue these past months, and one that has been clearly supported by over 5000 signatures on the Lakeside Greens Golf Course Preservation Society’s petition. Intention of this motion is to develop a more solid and reliable way to keep the current zoning protected and not be vulnerable to re-assessment without Residential input received, through a plebiscite for example. Motion carried.
Item 9 – Authorize Mayor & Council to begin discussions and informal negotiations on all other aspects of the 120 Day Plan to be brought back to Council for further discussion. These include: twinning Rainbow Road and Highway 1a, focused commercial development, acquisition of the CRCA lands, completer review of fiscal responsibilities and financial processes, updated Governance policies, recover recreational via a land swap in front of Camp Chestermere, improving social programs support, and new Beachfront District and increased amenities (pool, splash park, hockey rinks and sports courts). Motion carried.
Well, that’s a lot of mountain to move for Council’s first 2 days in office!
But wait – another Special Meeting was called for October 28th at 3:00pm.
The Special Meeting of Council Agenda was:
Item 1 – Policy 654, Public Conduct and Civil Discourse policy
Item 2 – Council consent to release non-FOIP (Freedom of Information and Protection Privacy Act) from October 26, 2021, Special Council Meeting for the following items: a) School Site b) Field House c) Utility Company 1538942 AB Ltd. (formerly known as CUI)
The meeting opened and there was an issue right out of the gate when Mayor Colvin moved to add an item to the Special Meeting Agenda. Under the MGA (Municipal Government Act) there must be unanimous vote to support to adding an item to a Special Meeting Agenda. Two Councillors opposed the motion and the meeting was adjourned immediately.
Shortly after, another Special Meeting was called for same day at 4:00pm. When a Special Meeting is called without 24 hours notice, it’s required for two thirds of Council (5 out of the 7 members) to vote in favour and sign the document. The Mayor and all 6 Councillors signed the document, and the Special Meeting began right at 4:00pm.
The Special Meeting Agenda was:
- FOIP Act, Part 1, Division 2, Sec 17 – Personnel Matter
- Appointment of Acting CAO
Item a) Motion was made to revoke the current CAO’s authority. Carried unanimously. Basically, CAO Bernie Morton was released from service to the City of Chestermere.
Item b) Motion was made to hire Acting CAO Harry Harken. Carried unanimously.
And with that, the Special Meeting ended.
Whew – what a week! Now everyone take a breath, get some sleep, and buckle in for another week of activity – because Mayor Colvin has shared that there will likely be another Special Meeting to address the items that were on the Special Meeting Agenda of Oct 28th at 3:00pm.
Well folks, we shouldn’t be surprised. Jeff Colvin campaigned hard on his pledge for the 120 Day Plan. It looks like he plans to move more mountains – one stone at a time!
[democracy id=”6″]This is my opinion – what’s yours?
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