Yorkton Council made some housekeeping-style revisions to the City鈥檚 Travel and Training Members of Council Policy at its regular meeting Monday.
The Policy was last revised in 2014.
The Policy refers to the expenses related to Council travel and Training, and that is now reflected in the title. It does not set parameters for types and schedules of training for Council, which is a separate matter.
A major element of the Policy which needed revision dealt with electronic notepads used by Councillors.
鈥淢ost recently, it has come to Administration鈥檚 attention that the mobile devices assigned to City Council (iPads) are coming to the end of their useful lives, as most of these iPads have been cycled through a couple terms of Councils. As technology and our processes progress, compatibility with older devices is lost, and the IT Department is tasked with trouble shooting for these devices. It is less expensive for the City to maintain their own fleet of mobile devices, exchange/deploy and assign them as required, than to maintain a device that is not the property of the City of Yorkton. That change is reflected in Section 2.2. of the Policy,鈥� detailed a report circulated to Council.
鈥淭o further support that change, it is best practice to have all mobile devices that are connected to the City of Yorkton鈥檚 network follow the Mobile Device Guidelines. In order to protect the integrity of that policy, it has not been attached to the report. Council signed the Mobile Device Acknowledgement Form at the beginning of their terms, which sets out the parameters on usage of City devices. All rules have been adhered to; however it is most sensible to provide Council with a City-owned device that can be interchanged, instead of requiring them to replace it at their cost, if it becomes defunct.鈥�
The report also looked at travel and training expenses incurred by Councillors.
鈥淭he City of Yorkton has a Travel Allowance Policy which dictates how expenses are allotted for employee work related travel. This policy would have been developed after comparisons with Provincial and Federal rates, as well as other cities. There are two different policies as Council has some specialized things to consider such as per diems, and expenses related to the type of travel they do (related to representing Council and the City on certain committees). It is recommended that City Council use the values in this policy for their travel related expenses as well. This has been practiced, the policy just needs a formal update,鈥� stated the report.
Councillors are allowed expenditures of up to $1,800 per year under the policy.
