Three standing council committees are in the works after city hall went more than a year without any in place.
The previous council operated approximately five standing committees, which were disbanded a month before the November 2014 municipal election as per the city’s procedure bylaw. Flash forward 15 months, and the current council is getting around to re-implementation.
At Tuesday’s regular council meeting (Jan.12) the terms of reference for a police committee, finance and audit committee, and a tourism and economic development committee will be up for approval.
Finance and audit, and economic development and tourism are issues that former committees dealt with, but the police committee is something entirely new to city hall.
City of Merritt deputy clerk Carole Fraser told the Herald that council is not obligated to establish any committees during its term.
While not obligated to have them, the current council has incorporated committees with its strategic plan, placing Coun. Linda Brown in charge of establishing them.
“It’s taken us this long to get our act together to revise the committees and get some of the most important ones up and running again,” Brown said.
She said the members of council weren’t all initially sold on the idea that standing committees were needed.
Under the proposed terms of reference, the tourism committee will advise council on matters pertaining to economic development, investment and business attraction. It will also support the city’s new economic development manager and other city staff involved in these issues by developing recommendations to the city’s economic development plan.
The finance and audit committee will oversee the city’s independent auditor, its financial reporting and disclosure process, and review payable cheques on a regular basis.
She said the $300,000 in cost overruns from the Central Park Improvement Project is part of the reason this committee is being put in place now.
The police committee will review and advise council on all aspects of the city’s financial and organizational relationship with the RCMP. It will also consult with the officer in charge of the Merritt detachment regarding its operational performance and budget utilization, and liaise with community groups and the RCMP on policing matters.
The committee is being proposed in response to recommendations from the auditor general for local government’s report that showed the city lacked knowledge of its own police agreement.
The voting component of the tourism standing committee will consist of three councillors appointed by the mayor and two members of the community as appointed by council. The voting components of the police and finance committees will include the mayor and two councillors, but no members of the public, as they deal with confidential information.
One former committee that isn’t up for approval is the air quality committee, but the three currently proposed will not be the only standing committees Brown brings forward.
Brown said she’s thinking of combining the topics of air quality and the environment together into a committee for council approval.
Council has a list of about 15 potential committees, Fraser said.
According to the community charter, a mayor must establish standing committees on matters that he or she considers would be best dealt with by committee. Half of the appointed members must be councillors.
A standing committee is an advisory to council which will make recommendations for council consideration within the scope of its terms of reference.