Moved: Councillor Townsend
Since January 1, 2019, West Grey Council has revised its meeting schedule, with the intent of improving efficiency and hence service. These changes have resulted in an approximate reduction of 51% in Council’s meeting time, as well as freeing up a significant amount of staff support time to work on other activities.
However, recently, West Grey Council has encountered situations where it has been unable to complete all the business on its Meeting Agenda, with the last occurrence at the August 10th, 2021 Council meeting, when 23 distinct Agenda items were unable to be addressed, and so had to be carried over to the next regular, or a future, Council meeting.
The impact of not completing the business on an Agenda can be significant, especially when it happens repeatedly. Such impact can be on Council, staff, residents, businesses, operations and projects.
Recognizing a solution(s) must be identified to minimize or eliminate the underlying issues causing Council’s inability to complete all its business during a regular Council Meeting, with in the allotted time West Grey Council directs staff as follows:
- Staff bring back a report to Council no later than November 30th, outlining recommendations to better ensure Council completes all the business on every Council Meeting Agenda during the allotted time; and
- Staff consider the following in its report:
- results of the service and operations review underway, and
- the 2022 Schedule of Council Meetings be two (2) per month, with three (3) meetings scheduled over the July - August period, and one (1) in December, and
- a minimum of one (1) Special Council Meeting, be scheduled each month, with particular focus on:
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- significant items Council is seeing for the first time,
- items of a complex nature requiring more time,
- workshop / training, etc.
NB: A Special Council Meeting will only be held if there are qualifying Agenda items