Nearly eight weeks have gone by since the election of your new council. We have been busy making sure we follow through with the agenda I outlined in my inaugural speech.
To date we have: frozen council’s remuneration,
cancelled the five-year legal contract,
reduced the spending authority delegated to staff,
started a review of all existing contracts,
reviewed our committee structures,
began a review of budget plans, and
implemented the zoning bylaw relating to secondary suites.
We initiated a review of the zoning bylaw relating to secondary suites at our last Committee of the Whole meeting which received significant public input. This is an attempt to address affordable housing issues and to bring all secondary suites into compliance. Recommendations from this meeting have gone to staff for the preparation of an amendment to the zoning bylaw. The idea of the amendment is to allow secondary suites on smaller lots. These recommendations also focus on parking and neighbourhood impacts. The recommendations will come back to council for review and then be presented at a public hearing for further input and finally a decision by council.
There is much more to do over the coming days and months. Councillors are busy reviewing both the Epcor contract and the Prestige partnering agreement as well as starting a review of our road maintenance service contract to determine what process will be used to renew that service provision. Our Committee of the Whole meetings will be replaced by two committee meetings; Finance and Administration and Land Use. Each of these committees will have three councillors and two members of the public who will meet every second Monday in a public meeting. The public members for these two committees have been selected from a large group of very capable volunteers. Unfortunately we couldn’t take everyone that applied but hope that all will stay involved by providing input and advice at our meetings. The first Finance and Administration meeting will be Monday, Jan. 30 at 7 p.m. at the council chambers at which time the budget review process will move forward.
We have started working on our list of priorities for 2012 and they will be refined in conjunction with our budget planning over the next weeks. These priorities will include the capital improvements (sidewalks/ street improvements) we feel are achievable this year. All of these discussions are and will be held in public so if you’re interested check our web site for agenda details.
If you have questions or want to provide feedback on the value of this article to you. Contact me at wmilne@sooke.ca.
Wendal Milne
Mayor
