(Image credit: CFJC Today/File photo).

By Aaron Schulze

Busy Spring on the Horizon

Kamloops CAO requesting additional council meetings to make up for committee suspension

Mar 27, 2023 | 12:18 PM

KAMLOOPS — Spring could be an extra busy season for Kamloops Council.

In the agenda for Tuesday’s (March 28) regular council meeting, City of Kamloops CAO David Trawin is requesting additional meetings to be added to the 2023 calendar. The list of meetings includes:

• two regular council meetings on April 11 and May 2;
• a committee of the whole meeting on April 11;
• a closed committee of the whole meeting on April 11;
• a closed council meeting on April 11.

Trawin told CFJC Today the need for the additional meetings is due to council’s recent decision to put the city’s standing committees on hold as it reviews the terms of reference.

“There are several things that would go to committees for review which now need to go to council,” Trawin says. “We have no committee meetings coming… based upon that, we needed more council meetings just due to the amount of reports coming to council.”

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Normally, the standing committees would make recommendations to council. Trawin says council generally took the committees’ recommendation because the items had mostly been vetted thoroughly. Now it’s up to council as a whole to review items and give direction.

“I’m expecting Councillor Hall – who was given direction from council to select the people on the committee – will be presenting on Tuesday and they’ll be getting to work shortly after that,” Trawin says. “I’m hoping they get that done in a couple of meetings and we can get back again sometime in April for the decision on how to move forward with committee terms of reference.”

Elsewhere on the committee front, Trawin confirmed that Kamloops Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson sent a letter to council and staff that he is withdrawing his proposed list of committee appointees. However, he believes council will still want to review the standing committee terms of reference.

“No matter what comes out of the terms of reference, the mayor still does have 100 per cent authority on who gets appointed to committees,” Trawin says. “They can say the chair has to be a council member… how often the committee meets… set the exact details of what the committee looks like. They can only make recommendations to the mayor of who should be on the committee and how that process should look.”

Despite the agenda shuffling due to the standing committees being suspended, Trawin says the city’s fiscal year is on track with council’s five-year financial plan being tentatively approved. The plan is set to be presented in April for adoption in May.

“If the committees aren’t in place by that time, we’ll have to strategize on how we’re going to bring council’s strategic plan forward, how we’re going to prioritize it, and what direction we seek from council,” Trawin says.

Tuesday’s regular council meeting is scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m.