Councillor Paul Baxter rescinded a motion he made on Dec. 3, 2012 to increase the mayor’s salary from $37,000 to $55,000. Council agreed to postpone the vote until they received the recommendations from the Council Compensation Review Committee. Council voted to increase the mayor’s position to full time, with an associated salary of $77,000 per year, on the committee’s recommendation, so the rescinding of the original motion was a matter of procedure.
Council gave first reading to Bylaw 327, a Land Use Bylaw amendment to the CR land use district that deals with the railway station lands. A public hearing has been scheduled for September 9 at 2 p.m. in Council Chamber. A Municipal Planning Commission meeting has been scheduled for September 4 at 9 a.m. so the commission can review the amendment prior to the public hearing.
Council made several amendments to the Procedures Bylaw 44-6 and passed second reading, but asked for further edits from administration to return to the September 23 meeting. The bylaw regulates procedures such as when council agenda packages are made available, how the public participates in council meetings, how council motions are handled, and the term length members of the public can sit on town committees.
Changes to recreation fees and charges for 2013-2014 were approved by council, and they authorized the town manager to approve special rate structures for large scale events. New fees were included, and revisions were made to other fees for a few reasons. In some cases it was an inflationary increase and in others costs were increased to hit target rates in the budget. Some rates went up after looking at what others charge for the same service and it was found the town was greatly under charging.
Statistics on the usage of the new pedestrian bridge were presented to council. Based on numbers collected in July 2013, there was a peak weekday volume of 763 ‘movements’ per hour (whenever the counter recorded someone walking past the north side of the bridge). That peak was recorded Friday, July 12 between 2-3 p.m. The weekend peak was 669 movements recorded the next day between 9-10 a.m. Council also heard while there had been some graffiti incidents on the bridge, they were quickly removed, and an anti-graffiti coating will be placed on the rundlestone to make future graffiti removal easier. The engineering department also reported the bridge’s lighting had been dimmed. They had received some comments that the rope lighting was too bright, so it was adjusted.
Councillor Leslie Taylor brought a motion forward on Land Use Bylaw Clause 8.16.1(b)v for council to direct administration to consider it as a clause which sets limits to which variances may granted, and for administration to come back to council with wording necessary to clarify that in Land Use Bylaw. But it was opposed by the majority of council. Instead, council approved a motion by Councillor Chip Olver directing administration to consider Land Use Bylaw clause 8.16.1(b)v as a clause that sets the limit to which variances may be granted until such time that an alternative transportation incentive policy is approved by council and to return with an alternative transportation incentive policy for council’s consideration by November 25.
Councillor Taylor also gave a Notice of Motion that at the September 9 council meeting she would direct administration to investigate the advantages and disadvantages of employee housing districts.