Anmore Regular Council Meeting

Anmore Regular Council Meeting

April 21, 2015

Mayor McEwen called the meeting to order at 7 PM. All members of Council, Acting Manager of Corporate Services, Karen Ann Cobb, Manager of Public Works, Kevin Dicken, and six members of the public were in attendance. The agenda was approved with the addition of a discussion of the current transit referendum under item 10 Unfinished Business. As well, under item 11(a) an in-camera meeting to discuss the Labour Relations issue was added to the agenda.

The Minutes of the Regular Council Meeting held April 7, 2015 were approved as amended. Several spelling and syntax mistakes were adjusted. Anmore resident, Dr. Lynn Burton of Sugar Mountain Way alerted Council to a mistake in her question to Council about limits to the number of new lots given the Medium Growth Scenario, targeted in the Official Community Plan. The two Comprehensive Development (CD) proposals currently before Council have 59 lots in total. This is close to two thirds above the number of lots per year in the Medium Growth Scenario. The number of lots allowed is 21 not 61 as indicated. The 61 refers to the number of new residents. There was no Business Arising from the Minutes.

The Anmore Prepayment Plan Bylaw Number 539, 2015, under Item7(a) is for prepayment of both property taxes and utilities. Councillor Thiele was concerned that there is no provision in the bylaw for bill overpayment. Ms. Cobb indicated that this bylaw must be adopted before the tax bills go out. She also indicated that it could be amended to include a provision for overpayment at a later date. Council unanimously passed the bylaw.

Under item 7(b) Councillor Thiele asked that it be clear that the tax rates shown are for $1000 of assessed value.She said that a rate is something over some thing. For example, the residential rate of 1.0864 is for $1000 of assessed value. Council unanimously passed the bylaw, as amended.

There was no correspondence. Under item 9, Committee Reports and Recommendations, Council voted to appoint Elaine Willis, and Coleen Hackinen to the Environment Committee, and Terry Hughes to the Emergency Preparedness Committee. This was approved unanimously.

An Anmore resident asked about the Committee member selection process. She indicated that in July 2014 Council had reviewed draft terms of reference for the committees and had decided that further consideration of the terms of reference would be done in consultation with existing committee members. She understood that this had not been done and wondered what terms of reference were used to select volunteers for committees.

She also expressed concern about the new cap on the number of volunteers on Select Committees, such as the Environment Committee. She said that she had coaxed two highly qualified residents into volunteering for the Environment Committee, after Ms. Cobb had announced at a Council meeting that there were no volunteers. These people were notified by mail that they were not appointed to the four member committee. Apparently nine people had eventually volunteered to serve.She said that this is not paid employment andvolunteers should not be ranked against each other.

The resident said that in a small community like Anmore volunteers should be welcomed. Previously a number of the select committees often had 10 and more members. In the case of the Environment Committee, this meant that there were sufficient numbers to not only respond to Council requests for advice on policy but to also do more hands-on committee initiated projects.

Apparently some people had volunteered for more than one committee. If the resident was not appointed to their first committee choice, Council appointed them to another committee where they were needed. Dr. Burton questioned the wisdom of moving of volunteers to other committees without first consulting with them to determine if this was okay.

Mayor McEwen indicated that Council realizes that there are concerns about the Committee member appointment process and is working on this issue.

Under New Business, Item 11, Mayor McEwen indicated that this was an opportunity to determine where Council members stood on the ‘Yes’ vote in current Mayor's plebiscite on transit. He said that this was in response to a request from CouncillorThiele. Council members all support the ‘yes vote’ campaign for health, service, and property tax reasons. Council formed a resolution in favour of the ‘yes’ vote.

Under item 12, Mayor’s Report, Mayor McEwen, gave an up date on the Metro Vancouver Strategic Plan Meeting that he attended in Harrison. He also indicated that, although only 19% of the ballots have been counted for the transit plebiscite, there is a huge backlog of unprocessed ballots. He is meeting with Fortis BC on a possible Mossom Creek Hatchery connecting trail. As well, he is attending a gathering in Victoria which will honour Anmore resident Gordon Marks with a BC Achievement Award. Mayor McEwen also expressed sadness over the deaths of three well-known Anmore residents, Mr. Jim Roberts, Mr. Vern Sparks, and his neighbour Robert Tribe.

Under item 13, Councillors Reports,Councillor Thiele reported on the first full committee meeting of the Advisory Planning Commission. There was an orientation presentation by CitySpaces planning consultant Brent Elliott. She also gave a heads-up on a commemorative fundraiser for Grady a deceased local three-year-old at Inlet Theatre on May 22nd. Councillor Weverink reported on joining the mayor and other Council members at the grand opening of EagleMountainMiddle School, a Blue Dot environmental meeting in POCO, and an upcoming early childhood community awards gathering. Councillor Trowbridge is keen to begin work with the yet to be appointed four member Heritage and Culture Committee.

Finally, under the Chief Administrative Officer's Report, Manager of Public Works, Kevin Dicken, reported that the Water Utility Master Plan Report will be presented to Council on May 19th.

The meeting adjourned at 8:45 PM and Council retreated to an in-camera meeting about Labour Relations.