YORKTON - Yorkton Council undertook a discussion to fine tune some of its pre-meeting processes at its most recent meeting Jan. 31.
On Jan. 10 at its Committee of the Whole Meeting, Council directed Administration “to report back to Council on options for planning and preparing items for the Council Agenda, explained Jessica Matsalla – Director of Legislation and Procedures (City Clerk) with the City. Particular areas of concern were: *Receiving council packages as early as possible - currently Council receives their information the Thursday prior to the Council Meeting; and *Laying out a more detailed plan on when certain items will be presented to Council.
This conversation also encompassed the several different stages of consideration that a decision could undergo and its related exercises (i.e. Town Hall Meetings, Public Feedback and Engagement, Council Committee Meetings, Strategic Planning Meetings, Committee of the Whole Council Meetings, and Council Meetings).
Council packages have evolved to be quite extensive (300 plus pages at times) and have a diverse set/large volume of comprehensive information. While understandable that four days is not a lot of time to digest the information presented, pushing back deadlines, may present certain challenges that we currently try to avoid, said Matsalla.
Another topic discussed was considering delegations at another level, such as a committee level. Regina it was noted, has made the decision to hear delegations at the Executive Committee level, as opposed to at the Council meeting. Council Meetings are the platform for final decision making, and ideally by that time, discussion will be refined to a point where Council is prepared to confidently make a call on the item before them, said Matsalla.
Delegations are often proposing something new, which commonly gets referred to Administration or a Committee to further investigate and report back on.
“Council wished to hear delegations at a different level of meeting, more meetings would need to be scheduled on a regular basis. This may, shorten meetings, so frequency of meeting would substitute length,” she stated. “I am of the opinion that our current strategy is most efficient.”
In discussion it was suggested Council would be better served by receiving its packages earlier.
“I think we need the extra day,” said Councilor Chris Wyatt, noting “. . . our packages are quite large,” which makes it harder to go through especially if a Councilor has a job which means going over material in off hours. Coun.
Dustin Brears agreed packages can be large. Being new to Council he said, “the 300-plus pages surprised me.”
Coun. Darcy Zaharia said more day would be a good thing “so we can do our own research if we need to.”
City manager Lonnie Kaal said an extra day was workable on the Administration side, noting while they have established process “we just need to start that process a day early.”
In the end Council voted to have its packages delivered a day earlier, but left the process for delegations as it is.
