1st Community Meeting this Thursday Sept. 16th

Hi everyone,

I thought I would log on and invite everyone to the first of our series of Community meetings this Thursday, Sept. 16 from 6:30 pm-9:00 pm at the Civic Centre Auditorium.

The topics for this meeting center on downtown revitalization and include: The City of Prince Rupert’s Zoning Bylaw and Development Permit Area requirements; Parking (pay in lieu and length of stay); the Property Tax Revitalization Bylaw; the Property Maintenance Bylaw; and Business Improvement Area. We also will have a general information station that will go through how to find out information on the city website as well as provide a forum for people to ask general questions related to downtown issues not covered by the other topics, and to suggest possible topics for future sessions.

The evening will go as follows. The first 15 minutes or so will be to go around and check out the various stations and see what is of interest to you. This will be followed by a brief introduction. People will then choose a station to start at.

At each station staff members will give a short presentation on the topic for that station. Following this presentation there will be a chance for people to ask questions, voice concerns, provide comments, and make suggestions. Notes will be taken and recorded for each session. After approximately 20 minutes people will rotate tables and move to the next station. This will continue until everyone has had a chance to participate in each session. The evening will end with some closing remarks.

If you arrive late or can only attend for a certain period of time you can go to the information sessions that you feel you have the most interest in, regardless of the order of the stations.

If you are unable to attend you can still submit your questions, concerns, suggestions or comments to the administration office at city hall, either by email and/or in writing, as soon as possible after the meeting, (preferably within 2 weeks) so that staff can compile the information gathered.

If you need any further information please contact city hall- administration department. The phone number is 250-627-0934.

I look forward to seeing people there. I will post information on the next meeting as soon as the topics are finalized.

Sincerely,

Anna Ashley

So now our city council wish to invite us all to their version of Olympics of The Mind . They say we must not spend more then fifteen min. at a station , sounds like they are afraid we as common voters will have time to figure out what they have been doing behind those closed doors .Whatever happened to meetings where one could ask serious questions to the panel “council member” , with feedback ?

Or City Hall anticipates that it will be busy and want to make sure everyone in attendance gets to visit all the stations, rather than having a few people holding up the entire event because they want to interrogate some poor staff member. Or it could be part of their plot. I’m not sure.

At least they are doing something like this…I find it funny always some jack#@$ out there to complain about something

Just a few points I wanted to clarify.

Firstly, if someone comes and wants to spend their entire time at one station, then they are certainly free to do so. This format was designed to allow people a chance to hear about all the topics.

Secondly, there will be a council member at each station, and there will be council members there after the meeting. Everyone is certainly free to ask us questions. The purpose of the staff presentations, and them being there is that they have more specific knowledge about these topics in order to answer questions.

Lastly, if there are specific questions a person would like to ask any of us on council at any time, there are many ways to contact us outside of these community meetings. Each of us has a specific email address to which they can address concerns, or they could phone us to let us know their questions/concerns. Lastly, they could ask their questions at a council meeting in the committee of the whole, or arrange a petition of delegation and ask to address council about their concerns. These community meetings are simply an additional way of accomplishing this.

Well I have been called a Jack Ass on a number of occassions in my life, so be it but the truth of the matter is there will not be a Speedy recovery for this community which is going the way of old legos. There will not be a boom as others kept telling the world in the last term of city council. If council would begin to address matters at hand we could have something to work with,if the individuals who ran with certain portfolios during their election promises stuck to their guns and never got wishwashie under the thumb of Jacko. There is not any reason why they can not begin turning things around, make downtown presentable and clean like cowbay area. Call me or someone like me a Jack ass for wanting this community to be proud , well you can join the group of false promises.

Just a reminder that the first meeting is tonight from 6:30-9:00 pm at the Civic Centre Auditorium. I hope to see you there.

When I start seeing you folks out on our community streets and speaking with us common folk then I may attend a meeting. Stretch from the corner of your desks and to see what is really going on.

I just wanted to thank everyone that came to the meeting last night. While numbers were small, the conversations were excellent and we received many valuable comments and suggestions, as well as were made aware of various concerns. Overall it was a good evening. The next meeting will cover the topics of Vandalism, Policing and Public Safety and will be held on Wed Oct 6th at the Civic Centre Auditorium. Time to be announced.

[quote=“AnnaA”]Just a few points I wanted to clarify.

Firstly, if someone comes and wants to spend their entire time at one station, then they are certainly free to do so. This format was designed to allow people a chance to hear about all the topics.

Secondly, there will be a council member at each station, and there will be council members there after the meeting. Everyone is certainly free to ask us questions. The purpose of the staff presentations, and them being there is that they have more specific knowledge about these topics in order to answer questions.

Lastly, if there are specific questions a person would like to ask any of us on council at any time, there are many ways to contact us outside of these community meetings. Each of us has a specific email address to which they can address concerns, or they could phone us to let us know their questions/concerns. Lastly, they could ask their questions at a council meeting in the committee of the whole, or arrange a petition of delegation and ask to address council about their concerns. These community meetings are simply an additional way of accomplishing this.[/quote]

Anna, ideally the plan may have been to have a council member at each station, there were only two there (one as acting Mayor). Not sure where the other councilors and Mayor were? The idea was good, but just one question, the 12 staff members there last night, will they be submitting their time as “over-time?” Many of the staff members are on the top end of the pay scale and I hope the city will not have a bill for over time.

I appreciated yours and Gina’s effort trying to be open in communication with the public. I am not sure about others, but I have in the past emailed all councilors and mayor and was lucky to have one reply. I understand some people do not like to use email to reply, but the city did invest in laptops for council.

Yes the election is next year and those who want to run next year, guess we will be hearing more from them.

Are you sure Betty Boop that elections are next year ? Whoever does run must know there will be one hell of a mess to clean up , its not going to be an easy job being left with everything blowing in the wind. I have honestly not seen one project come to light or maybe I am wrong. Even the tourists who are honest have said things about the place and not very positive. Shit at least Pond’s smile could fool you into thinking things were good.

Rather than going to work, you mean? Not everyone has the kind of job that allows them to walk around town and talk to people in the middle of a work day.

[quote=“Bettyboop86”]

Anna, ideally the plan may have been to have a council member at each station, there were only two there (one as acting Mayor). Not sure where the other councilors and Mayor were? The idea was good, but just one question, the 12 staff members there last night, will they be submitting their time as “over-time?” Many of the staff members are on the top end of the pay scale and I hope the city will not have a bill for over time.

I appreciated yours and Gina’s effort trying to be open in communication with the public. I am not sure about others, but I have in the past emailed all councilors and mayor and was lucky to have one reply. I understand some people do not like to use email to reply, but the city did invest in laptops for council. [/quote]

To try to answer your questions:

  1. In terms of attendance, they mayor was in Alaska at the Southeast Alaska conference, Councillor Kinney was ill, Councillor Bedard was away for work, and I believe Councillor Thorkelson and Councillor Gordon-Payne had unexpected work related reasons. I am confident we will all be there for the next one.

  2. Regarding overtime, most of the staff you are talking about would be on salary, not being paid on an hourly rate, so I believe that overtime would most likely be taken as time in lieu. There will be some costs for staff time to set up and take down as well. However, I believe this will be minimal, and, as far as I’m concerned the costs will be worth it. I had some very good discussions with people and got some really good ideas and feedback that I plan to bring back to council. In my opinion, if even one person feels as if they have a better understanding of our new bylaws, or has had an opportunity to voice concerns, suggestions and/or their comments about what is going on, that wouldn’t otherwise have had a chance to do so, then it has been worthwhile. The opportunity to improve on our part is another added benefit.

  3. In terms of the email, I can only answer for myself, and I do return phone calls and emails. It could be that your emails were forwarded to staff to look into, but again, I can only speak for myself. Only 5 of us, however are using laptops and paperless agendas. The mayor and Councillor Thorkelson are not. The option was up to us each individually. Some prefer phone vs email as well.

I hope that clears some things up. Thanks for coming out. Hope to see you next time.

I would like to say that I have attended this community meeting, and several council meetings this year. I think council makes decisions based on what they think is best for the community from their knowledge. When the community is not there to represent themselves then our leaders may not make decisions within our best interests. I have been to council meetings where there was only 2 general members of public attending the meeting. Although I am still considered very young and inexperienced, I have been disapointed in the public turnouts to the community meetings I have been involved with. From my understanding you can not make the best improvements if you don’t have constant reminders of what priority’s people want. Our elected officials have other jobs or involve themselves in voluteering, which is a time donation. For the most part it is more than what the general population does for this community. Everyone has a life and your life cannot stand still just because you are the elected official. They work, voluteer, run our community, raise families, and hopefully they get an hour or 2 a week to really enjoy life. THEY ARE NOT SITTING AT A DESK 24/7 like most of the people do that complain too much and do nothing to better the community themselves.

What we really need as a community is for everyone to get involved in our community. Whether it is volunteering, making your opinions heard, or making something happen that you think we need. You cannot not just complain, but you actually have to approach the complaint in a very serious manner which may involve going to community meetings/council meetings and directly confronting council with your issues in front of people. That has more effect than stopping them in the street or par say complaining on a site like HTMF. I wish the best for this community and do not want to see it get any worse. I’m born and raised, I hope to raise children here, and I have been involved in the community.

Now I am not saying that I agree with every decision made by council, but I am atleast willing to listen to why they choose to make those decisions. After that I may still not agree but atleast I am informed.

For the most part, the lack of public support our council has really floored me when I realized how many people in our community really care about our community and make a conscious effort to improve it. i wish the best for everyone in our town, I wish the best for future economy up, but most of all I wish that our community takes it upon themselves to drive our community in a positive direction. A captain alone is not responsible for the well being of the ship. Everyone on the ship has a responsbililty to make the ship run tight. Let’s communicate what we want and try to make the community of Prince Rupert a tight ship.

[quote=“AnnaA”]

[quote=“Bettyboop86”]

Anna, ideally the plan may have been to have a council member at each station, there were only two there (one as acting Mayor). Not sure where the other councilors and Mayor were? The idea was good, but just one question, the 12 staff members there last night, will they be submitting their time as “over-time?” Many of the staff members are on the top end of the pay scale and I hope the city will not have a bill for over time.

I appreciated yours and Gina’s effort trying to be open in communication with the public. I am not sure about others, but I have in the past emailed all councilors and mayor and was lucky to have one reply. I understand some people do not like to use email to reply, but the city did invest in laptops for council. [/quote]

To try to answer your questions:

  1. In terms of attendance, they mayor was in Alaska at the Southeast Alaska conference, Councillor Kinney was ill, Councillor Bedard was away for work, and I believe Councillor Thorkelson and Councillor Gordon-Payne had unexpected work related reasons. I am confident we will all be there for the next one.

  2. Regarding overtime, most of the staff you are talking about would be on salary, not being paid on an hourly rate, so I believe that overtime would most likely be taken as time in lieu. There will be some costs for staff time to set up and take down as well. However, I believe this will be minimal, and, as far as I’m concerned the costs will be worth it. I had some very good discussions with people and got some really good ideas and feedback that I plan to bring back to council. In my opinion, if even one person feels as if they have a better understanding of our new bylaws, or has had an opportunity to voice concerns, suggestions and/or their comments about what is going on, that wouldn’t otherwise have had a chance to do so, then it has been worthwhile. The opportunity to improve on our part is another added benefit.

  3. In terms of the email, I can only answer for myself, and I do return phone calls and emails. It could be that your emails were forwarded to staff to look into, but again, I can only speak for myself. Only 5 of us, however are using laptops and paperless agendas. The mayor and Councillor Thorkelson are not. The option was up to us each individually. Some prefer phone vs email as well.

I hope that clears some things up. Thanks for coming out. Hope to see you next time.[/quote]

Anna, thank you for clarity on the councilors absence, city staff’s schedule, and council’s communication. Perhaps if this was posted on the website as it does give the email addresses and thought some would use this means of correspondence.

You mentioned some of the topics for the next session, do we have a definite list of topics? I would encourage those on htmf to attend and give input there and see if many of your questions and concerns get address than just posting them here.

The confirmed topics for the next meeting are: Public safety, Vandalism and Policing. There will also be a general information station.

Also Councillor Thorkelson was absent due to illness on the evening of the first meeting, not for work related reasons.