Castlegar city council has passed a bylaw amendment that limits how often and how many councillors can attend the annual Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference.
The resolution is one of a pair of motions brought forward by councillor Florio Vassilakakis after controversy arose when Mayor Bruno Tassone and councillor Cherryl MacLeod declined to provide council with a detailed accounting of their activities at the conference during a June council meeting.
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Vassilakakis’ first motion passed in June and requires any councillor or mayor who attends out-of-town events to submit detailed reports from those events.
The new policy will limit FCM attendance to once per term for each council member and limit the number of members attending on any given year to two.
The previous policy allowed councillors to attend twice a term and did not specify a limit as to how many could go at once.
Vassilakakis’ motion stated the value to taxpayers of attending this specific conference twice in a term was questionable. It also stated that attending other conferences, workshops, training sessions and seminars may provide better value to the municipality.
RELATED: Castlegar mayor refuses to divulge activities at municipal conference
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