CARSTAIRS - Town council has approved changes to the municipality’s advertising policy, including regarding public notifications.
The move came during a recent regularly scheduled council meeting.
Changes were approved regarding development permits, public notices, job postings, and tenders and contracts.
Under the changes, advertising methods will be accordance with the town’s new public notification bylaw No. 1074.
Accepted advertising methods under bylaw No. 1074 include publishing in local weekly newspaper, electronically posted on any Town of Carstairs official website, electronically posted on any official Town of Carstairs social media sites, or posted on bulletin boards at prominent town facilities such as the administrative office.
Regarding development permits, the former wording of “Development permits issued as discretionary use will be advertised in one week’s issue of a designated weekly paper serving the local area” now reads “development permits issued as discretionary use will be advertised for one week.”
Regarding public notices, the former wording that, “general public notices will appear in the designated weekly paper serving the local area for an adequate period of time” now reads “will be advertised for an adequate period of time to be determined by content.”
Regarding job postings, the former wording at “Open positions of employment should be advertised in the designated weekly paper servicing the local area for two consecutive weeks” is removed.
Council also made a change to the media relations policy, which now states that all press releases and public statements will go through the chief administrative officer’s office, not the mayor’s office as previously stated.
Carl McDonnell, the town's chief administrative officer (CAO), says under the change the mayor remains the spokesperson for the town.
“The change on the policy is that we don’t have a mayor’s office,” he told The Albertan. “The mayor and councillors have an office space here that they use, but we don’t have a separate administrative body for the mayor.
“As the CAO reports to the mayor and council any proposed statements or press releases are coordinated through the CAO office and then passed onto council.
“As the policy states the mayor is the spokesperson for the town and the only items that administration can communicate to the media are policy, procedures or technical reports.”
Council passed motions accepting both policy changes as information.
