GGS Committee Agenda for June 30th

Because of the Canada Day holiday one of my regular city committee meetings has been bumped to Tuesday - the General Government Services (GGS) Committee. As I mentioned last time I posted an agenda from GGS, this committee meets every second week and generally deals with things like internal corporate services (IT, and Finance) as well as the administrative functions of the corporation.

Below is the agenda for today's meeting. The names you see below the agenda items are the staff members who are presenting the report on that item. My quick comments are in italics.

Delegations
1. Mr. B. Manz - 2008 Aquatera Annual Report (attached)
The city owns Aquatera (along with the County of GP and the Town of Sexsmith) and as part of that relationship we see them at meetings quite often. Presenting the annual report is kind of just an FYI thing as all council members receive it in our mail boxes.

2. Committee “In Camera” (land matter)

3. Grande Prairie Public Library 2008 Audited Financial Statements (attached)
S. Walker, Acting Corporate Services Director
The Library is one of two organizations who's year end financial statements are combined with the City's. The other is the Airport. The library ended the year with a surplus of $292,776 - mostly due to a number of smaller factors that added up; unexpected grants and higher than expected fundraising on the revenue side and lower than expected or deferred expenses. Any surplus is transferred to a reserve and will cover some of the increased expenses that come as the library grows in to the new building.

4. Branding Exercise RFP Award (attached)
D. Olinger, Manager Marketing and Communications
This will ensure that the city is effectively marketing itself in a coordinated manner. The most visible result of this for the public will likely be some kind of new logo for the city (Right now we are using the city Crest which really isn't a logo). I won't be surprised if there is some angry feedback on this expense ($36,000) but ultimately the city is a large corporation that needs to communicate effectively with the public and this will help.

5. Strategic Priorities Chart Update (attached)
A. Cerny, Acting Legislative Services Manager

6. Correspondence

6.1 Mr. W. Drysdale, MLA, re: 2009 Municipal Sustainability Initiative allocation (attached)
This is in response to a letter we sent outlining the negative impact that the province's decision to reduce MSI funding had on our city. The province chopped about $2.4 million out of grant funding we were supposed to receive this year - money that was going to the construction of the multiplex.

6.2 AUMA Mayors’ Caucus, re: Bill 203 Local Authorities Election Act Amendment (attached)
This new provincial bill (view as a pdf)came from an MLA's private member motion late this spring. It sets out rules for how municipal election campaigns are financed and reported. I don't think anyone has too much of a problem with having fair guidelines in place that ensure transparency (I don't) the issue is that this was sprung on municipalities without any consultation. Because of that there are a number of holes in the proposed legislation that could have negative impacts. Hopefully we'll be able to correct these things by working through AUMA before this becomes law.

7. Other Business

Quick Trip to Red Deer

I'm hitting the road shortly for a quick trip to Red Deer. AUMA is hosting a President's Summit on the future of Local Governance and I'll be representing the City of Grande Prairie.

The name "President's Summit" adds a lot of gravitas to and event, and in this case at least it's well deserved as we'll be discussing some very important issues that have the potential to shape the future of local government in Alberta. Here's the description from the AUMA website:

"This two-day event is designed to help municipally elected officials, senior administration, community leaders and other stakeholders explore the future of local governance. Participants will learn from speakers and experts, from both inside and outside the province, about Alberta municipal governance (Alberta municipalities), with a goal of building AUMA’s 2009 Policy Options Report on the Future of Local Governance."

The word is that the Provincial government is looking at updating the Municipal Government Act, but is waiting for input from this AUMA process and the 2009 Policy Options Report mentioned above.

Like any good event it comes with some homework so over the last couple of nights I've been digesting the background discussion papers.

If you want to read a pretty reasonable look at some of the most important issues facing Alberta communities today I really recommend the Discussion Paper (link to pdf) in particular.

So, I'm driving down today so I can be there for the morning start tomorrow. If the event was in Edmonton I might have flown and gone Thursday morning but with no direct GP to Red Deer flights that's pretty tough. On top of that I'll be heading home right after things wrap up on Friday afternoon - I need to be back to go to the Rotary Greenathon on Saturday morning. I'm glad I have satellite radio!

Mobile Blogging (or Lack Thereof)

Last week I was in Edmonton for the annual AUMA conference. I went down a day early so I could be there at 9am for a full day pre-convention workshop on "Green Building". During the session I was taking notes and then during the break I typed up a little synopsis on my blackberry that I emailed in to Blogger (the system that runs this website) so that it would come up as a new post for your to check out.

I did the same thing the next couple of days as I attended education session and the rest of the conference. During a little downtime in the hotel room I thought I'd just check in on the site to make sure that the posts looked ok as the formatting doesn't always translate well from the blackberry to the website.

Imagine my surprise when none of the posts I had emailed in where up on the site! Not a single one had made it up there - I don't know if the problem was with blogger or with my email or with the blackberry.

Luckily I still have my notes, so over the next few days I'll take some time an put together a post to cover the conference. There was a lot of good information and I'd really like to pass it on.

In the mean time, you can check out this overview from Peace River Councillor Leslie Ayre-Jaschke. Leslie and I have emailed back and forth a few times since she's started her blog but this AUMA conference was only the second time we've met in person (the other time was when she represented PR council in GP for the 50th Anniversary Home Coming Weekend).

Back In Action, Getting the Team Together

Well, council is back at it. I stopped by city hall this week to pick up the Orientation Package for council members. The package is given out at the start of a new term to give council members the general "lay of the land".

The Orientation Package binder that all new council member received contains:

• The Strategic Plan
• Council & Administration Contact Directory
• A list of the Boards & Committees
• The Mandates for all the Boards & Committees
• Council Procedure Bylaw (C-962)[pdf file]
• City Administration Bylaw (C-1012)
• Council Code of Ethics
• Conflict of Interest Legislation
• Resource Material for; Effective Meetings, Conflict Resolution, Team Building, ect.

On the cover it also has the schedule for the orientation process:

Friday from 6- 9 we'll have an informal meeting and dinner. This is really a "getting to know you" kind of session, which I think is really important given how many members of council are new to the job. This is also a chance for all the council members to share a little bit about what their priorities are and what they feel they bring to the job.

Monday there is a training session on the technology in council chambers, how to vote how to turn the mics on and off, it starts at 10:30. Then the County of Grande Prairie has invited us to visit them at 4 and we have to be back at city hall from 6 -9 is the swearing in session and official organizational meeting. The first part of the night is taking official pictures that end up in the annual report and on your council webpage ( - wear a suit and tie.) Then the first council meeting starts, members are sworn in one by one and sign the oath of office under they watchful eye of the city solicitor. (- pause when you sign so family can take pictures!). After the fun stuff council members stay behind to hear a little about the rolls and responsibilities of the job as well as to review some of the other info in the Orientation Package.

Tuesday morning from 10 - 12 we will be back at city hall to review committee priorities and some of the hot topics that the council will have to be ready to work on right away. This session is attended by council (of course) as well as the city manager and the four directors responsible for Community Development, Protective Services, Public Works and General Government Services.

So there you go, that's what the first week after being elected is like. Following all this committees start up as usual and then in November there are 5 days of budget sessions and 3 days of theAUMA conference in Calgary.

Municipal News from the 'Hat

I did a search last night to see what I could find for blogs focusing on municipal government in Alberta. I only got through the first couple of pages of results but there was one real gem in there.

Mad Hatters is a very active blog commenting on what is happening down in Medicine Hat. It's great to see that there are people talking about local government in that corner of the province!

I lived in the 'Hat for a year and it always seemed to have a lot of similarities to Grande Prairie. Having said that there are a lot of things that were different even then - demographics to start, GP has more people 4 and under than we have 60 and over. Medicine Hat is at the other end of the spectrum.

John Hamill is the one member of the council there that I know. We've crossed paths couple of times at conferences of the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association over the years. I've been introduced to him because Helen Rice from our council is very involved at AUMA and I think they both sat on the association's board at one time.

Anyways, it's great to find at least one other site focusing on a city government in Alberta. There must be more so I guess it's back to the search - unless you have any suggestions.

Either way I'm going to add Mad Hatters to my regular reading material - and to the Worthwhile Blogs list on the right side bar.