Q & A Nanaimo City Hall Blog

Question for All Candidates for Nanaimo City Council:

Council agendas are produced by Staff and are distributed to Council and to the public two business days ahead of the respective Council meeting which they define. Does this schedule give sufficient time for Council and the public to read, comprehend, research and discuss with each other, with authorities and with the public, the issues represented in what may be a 300+ page document?
 
Please respond with either YES or NO and, if NO, please give the number of working days – do not include weekends and holidays- which you feel should be available to Council and the Public to consider the issues in an agenda prior to a Council meeting.  (Please give your estimate as a number). Include reason(s) if you feel so inclined.)
 
This question will be open to all candidates until Friday, Oct. 31, at 4:30 pm.  All responses will be recorded and posted on http://www.nanaimocityhall.com.


My answer:

NO; the schedule does not give enough time.

I would like to see the Agenda and Reports for a specific Monday Council or
Committee of the Whole Meeting issued the Monday prior to the Meeting giving one
week for digestion. My rationale for this is so that Council are only dealing with one
Agenda at a time. Any late items added to the Agenda should be posted the Thursday
Prior giving two business days for Council to pose questions they may have to staff.

This would also allow Citizens to meet the criteria of COUNCIL PROCEDURE BYLAW
2007 NO. 7060 when wanting to appear as a delegation for both regular and late
items.
http://www.nanaimo.ca/UploadedFilesPath/Bylaws/B7060cons.pdf

All candidates answers are here:
http://nanaimocityhall.com/2014/10/31/q2-agenda-timing/