CARSTAIRS - With abuse of elected officials, including municipal council members, in the province becoming more widespread, the Town of Carstairs council has approved new guidelines aimed at letting people know what they can and cannot do or say during meetings.
The new guidelines were adopted by council during a recent, regularly-scheduled council meeting.
The guidelines will be posted at the town office and may be included in future agenda packages, says mayor Lance Colby.
The decision to adopt the guidelines was made following a recent Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference, which saw Calgary mayor Jyoti Gondek make a presentation to delegates, including representatives from the Town of Carstairs, said Colby.
“A lot of councillors and mayors are getting a lot of pushback from people with misinformation and with threats to council members,” Colby told the Albertan. “This is becoming a problem.
“There is a huge number of (elected officials) who have resigned because of threats. So we thought we would get ahead of it and identify what the process is.”
The guidelines adopted by council deal with public question periods and delegation appearances.
The guideline states, in part, “Abuse will not be tolerated, presenters and audience members should respect all citizens and council members regardless of their beliefs or opinions, (and) applause or other displays of support or opposition are not acceptable.”
Specifically regarding public question periods, the guidelines state that, “All questions should be directed to Town of Carstairs council, questions should be kept to a maximum of five minutes, and a maximum of five individual public questions will be accepted per meeting.”
Specially regarding delegations, the guidelines states, in part, “delegations have a 10-minute time limit regardless of the number of speakers, each council meeting will accept a maximum of three separate delegations, and presentation items must be submitted five days in advance to the executive assistant, with late requests requiring chief administrative officer approval.”
Asked if the Carstairs council has had problems with people being abusive or disruptive during council meeting, Colby said no.
