AUMA Convention - GP Pushes Internet Voting Forward

We've had good success with our resolutions at the AUMA convention this year. Below I mentioned our 911 funding resolution that was passed yesterday.



This afternoon I had the pleasure of standing up to introduce our resolution on internet voting. The resolution read;



"Now therefore be it resolved that the AUMA encourage the Provincial Government to amend the Local Authorities Election Act to enable alternative means of voting for future Municipal General Elections, including internet or web-based voting, while preserving the integrity of the voting process and protection for voters of the secrecy to cast ballots."



I spoke to the experience of Markham, which I mentioned here before. The vote was called and the motion passed - but with a surprisingly narrow margin! I think it was something like 118 for and 76 against. Regardless of the margin it is now the policy of the organization and they will begin working on the province to get this moving. Hopefully you'll have the ability to vote online soon... The next city election is in 2010, stay tuned.

Helen Wins Another One

Helen also ran for a position as a Vice President for the AUMA this morning. In AUMA there are two positions for Directors AND one position of VP for Cities Under 500 000.

In the VP race helen was up against Councillor Len Bracko of St. Albert. They've faced off before and Helen came out on top again!

AUMA Day Two - More Elections

Helen Rice is running to be re-elected to the board ad director for cities under 500 000. There are two spots open, and Helen is in a group of three.

One of them is Linda from Strathcona County. By the way I think its pretty strange that we could have someone from a county on the board of the URBAN municipalities association. Strathcona county is trying to play both sides of the field as far as I'm concerned.

The second is Martin Shields from Brooks.

The third is Helen and she is speaking now - got a good laugh from the crowd to start... Results in just a few minutes..

The directors for cities under 500 000 are:

Helen Rice and Martin Shields!

AUMA Convention - Day Two

The convention is starting off with a bang this morning. The fisrt order of business is to elect the executive including the president. Three men are running for that spot; Bob Hawkesworth from Calgary (the current pres), Ed Gibbons from Edmonton and Lloyd Bertschi from thetown of Mornville.

I'd like to see Lloyd win, Ed from Calgary has been pres for the past three years and it's time to have the leadership rotate back to a community other than one of the two big cities.

Both Lloyd and Bob have spoken and Ed is on right now.

...

In a couple moments we'll vote electronically and have the results...

The president of AUMA for 2008 is; Lloyd Bertschi!

AUMA Committee on Environment

I'm in a session reviewing what AUMA has been doing on environmental issues over the past year. Here are a few of the highlights that I could capture for you:

- They are working to develop a Water Conservation Strategy with in concert with AB Environment and the AB Water Council

- They are promoting a strategy to remove government barries to alternitive energy in the province.

- Have provided input to AB Climate Change Action Plan Review

- They are pushing the province to develop and implement Green standards in the provincial building codes

- Working to deliver AB's Environment Conference in April 2008

There's lots more but I can only type so much with my thumbs! AB Enviroment is going to give a presentation now that I want to listen to - so I'd better sign off.

911 Funding Resolution

Just a few minutes ago our joint resolution with Edmonton on 911 funding was passed with a huge majority.

So, now it is the official position of AUMA. When I get to a real computer I'll give you some more of the details on the background around the issue.

AUMA Convention Day One

I;m on my blackberry today from downtown Calgary for the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association (AUMA) conference. AUMA is basically the provincial association for Cities, Towns and Villages. At the conference municipalities bring forward resolutions on different issues that affect the way cities operate and often these resolutions ask the provincial government to take some kind of action by changing some piece of legislation or program.



GP has two resolutions we are bringing forward:



The first is asking the province to add a fee to cell phone bills that would help operate 911 services. You already pay this on landlines but more and more of the calls are actually coming in from cell phones. Add that to the fact that more people are cancelling their landlines and moving just to cells (as I have) and you get a situation where there are more calls and less money to pay for the service. The city of GP runs the 911 call center in our area so this has a direct impact on our city budget - we can't do without 911 so we pay for it. Our resolution is being combined with an almost exactly similar one from Edmonton.



The second resolution we are bringing forward is to ask the province to amend the election law and allow internet voting in the next municipal election. I've posted on this before. I'm looking forward to speaking to the conference and bringing this forward.