Council Committee Bylaw approved

Posted on November 21, 2024 by Sunny South News

By Nikki Jamieson
Sunny South News

Starting in the new year, Coalhurst town council has a new bylaw to govern council committees.

The proposed bylaw comes from a closed meeting on Sept. 3, following which council passed a motion to direct administration draft a revised Council Committees Bylaw, structured with policy committees and ad-hoc committees, and present it to council for first reading no later than Oct. 15, 2024. 

The Council Committees Bylaw, or bylaw 458-24, if approved would have council change its committee structure to align better with the town’s current opportunities and challenges, and provide better clarification on a committee’s goals. When the bylaw was being discussed at council’s regular Oct. 15 meeting, Town CAO Karlene Betteridge said the bylaw was “one that simplifies and consolidates the information in easier places to find”.

“Hopefully, a document that’s easy to read for council and, of course, the public and volunteers that want to be part of council committee meetings,” said Betteridge of the bylaw.

Some of the changes include:

• Substantial changes to the Terms of Reference, so that they are not repeating information

• Clarification of what is the intent of each committee in Terms Of Reference

• Removed ‘secretaries’ from the bylaw for improved clarification of who has clerical duties

• Establishes three types of committees: Standing Committees (composed of council members with no members-at-large), Policy Committees (have goal of providing high-level bylaw and policy advice and guidance to council on certain topics, with no members-at-large) and Specialized Committees (an advisory committee that are given a topic to report to council on, and does include members-at-large).

If passed, the bylaw would reduce the number of council committees from eight to six, and reduce the number of member-at-large positions from eight to six. As of the time of the council meeting, only six of those positions are filled.

A complete list of internal and external committees will be provided by town administration to council during their annual organizational meeting.

Appointments for external committees are clarified in the town’s procedural bylaw, and the town’s three administrative committees, is they require a decisions from council, will submit a request for decision (RFD). Additionally, any committee that is mandated by the Municipal Government Act or other provincial legislation is not included in this proposed council committee bylaw. If approved, it will come into force on Jan. 1, 2025.

When asked how the process for committees asking council to take action is outlined within the bylaw, Betteridge said the RFD process was include in the bylaw itself, rather then the terms, and each committee will be submitting an RFD with recommendations to council.

When asked if they would need to amend the bylaw to allow for the creation of another committee, Betteridge confirmed that they would.

“Any committee of council must be included within this bylaw,” said Betteridge. “As time goes on and council’s priorities shift or different things come up, we’ll simply bring the bylaw forward and make an amendment to remove or add another council committee.”

Council passed all three readings of Council Committees Bylaw No. 458-24.