CREMONA - Village of Cremona officials will be drafting an update to its current procedure and conduct of council meetings bylaw following a recent council meeting recessed prematurely due to disruptions from persons in the gallery, says mayor Tim Hagen.
The regularly scheduled June council meeting was ended by the deputy mayor following disturbances from a small group of individuals who refused to recognize the chairman’s call for order, he said.
Although the village does have an existing procedure and conduct of council meetings bylaw, the legislation needs to be strengthened to deal with unreasonable disruptions, he said.
“We have to change our procedure bylaw to reflect that,” mayor Hagen told the Albertan.
In response, the village will drafting an updated bylaw outlining guidelines to regulate council meeting proceedings and the conduct of public hearings, he said.
The current bylaw allows council to go into recess and ask person or persons in the gallery to leave during public hearings, he noted.
Specifically, Section 606 states: “The chairman of the public hearing may require any person, other than a member of council, who in the opinion of the chair is conducting themselves in a disorderly or improper conduct, to leave the public hearing and if that person fails to do so, may cause that person to be removed.”
“But we don’t have a sergeant at arms, so we don’t really have a way of forcing them out,” Hagen said. “If they don’t want to leave, what can you do?
“I don’t think our bylaw is totally wrong. It just needs to be looked at and redone.”
Council is considering an update to the bylaw requiring people wishing to speak at council meetings and/or public hearings to register with the chief administrative officer (CAO) as a delegation at least five days before meetings, he said.
The updated bylaw will be based on the existing Sundre Bylaw No. 2002-06 Council Procedural Bylaw, said the village's CAO, Karen O’Connor.
Section 18.9 of the Sundre bylaw states: “Members of the public gallery during a council meeting shall not address council unless indicated on the agenda as a delegation, unless authorized by the chair, shall maintain order and quiet, and shall not applaud or otherwise interrupt any speech or action of the members, or any other person addressing council.”
Section 18.10 states that the presiding officer, may, “expel and excuse any person who creates a disturbance or acts improperly at which point the council meeting shall be recessed. The meeting shall be reconvened at the discretion of the chair.”
Section 8.4 of the bylaw states that “any person or group who claims to be affected by the subject matter of a public hearing shall be afforded an opportunity to speak, first for persons who have filed submissions in writing prior to the meeting, followed by persons who have indicated to the CAO in writing prior to the meeting a desire to be heard.
Regarding delegations, the bylaw reads, in part, that, “A member wishing to appear before council, individually or as a group, must make a written submission to the CAO to arrive no later than noon on the Wednesday immediately prior to the council meeting (and) delegations are scheduled at the discretion of the CAO subject to the volume of material on any given agenda, the number of requests for a specific meeting date and urgency of request or subject matter.”
The Sundre bylaw states that presentations will be directed to the chair and will be limited to 15 minutes (and) council may extend the time limits as necessary.
“Information presented by the delegation will be restricted to the topic noted in the written submission and recorded on the meeting agenda.”
CAO O’Connor said a committee of council will be overseeing the creation of the updated Cremona bylaw and she expects it to come before council for approval at an upcoming meeting, perhaps as early as the July 16 council meeting.
RCMP were called to a June Chestermere council meeting in response to a disruption in that council's gallery.
