Earlier meeting times, more summer meetings for Lethbridge County councilB

By Nikki Jamieson
Sunny South News

Lethbridge County council will be starting at 10 a.m. after some procedural changes were made.

During their regular Oct. 3 meeting, Lethbridge County council passed a new procedural bylaw.

Bylaw 19-041 – Council Procedural Bylaw Updates — updates council’s existing procedural bylaw. Previously, at their Sept. 9 regular meeting, council had directed administration to make several changes to their procedural bylaw and present the draft bylaw to council. Council’s previous procedural bylaw had been adopted in 2017.

Changes in the bylaw include starting council meetings at 9 a.m. instead of at 10 a.m., to allow for a more efficient use of staff time on meeting days and allow some meetings to be finished by noon or shortly thereafter, reducing the amount of time council members must commit to council meetings; scheduling one regular council meeting during the months of July and August, to reduce the likelihood of special meetings being needed during those months; allowing all council members the opportunity to serve as deputy reeve throughout the year, which gives each member the opportunity to act in that capacity and to gain some additional experience as an elected official; and affirming the requirement for resolution by a majority vote to be appointed reeve or deputy reeve ensures that a majority rules, rather than a minority and it ensures compliance with the Municipal Government Act.

Larry Randle, director of community services for the county, said another change they were proposing was changing the term ‘in-camera’ to ‘closed’, as the former is not listed in the MGA.

Reeve Lorne Hickey asked that in the changes listed, if they adopted the third one, they wouldn’t need the deputy reeve listed in the fourth change.

“It wouldn’t be voted on, that’s correct, but we would need a resolution once it was kind of decided amongst council members, three or five or six, however wanted to be in that role, it would just need a resolution appointing them as such,” said Randle.

Council passed all three readings of Bylaw 19-041.

Get More Sunny South News →