Municipal Affairs inspection coming soon
Council received a letter from Municipal Affairs Minister Doug Griffiths outlining some information about the process of the municipal inspection Penhold is going to undergo.
The inspection was triggered after a petition was submitted to the provincial government in August after garnering enough elector signatures to be found sufficient. Council had requested a corporate review before the petition went in.
Griffiths' letter said areas of review and evaluation will include bylaws, the structure of council committees, administration, the budget process, the town's financial status, interviews with staff and councillors and more.
Chief Administrative Officer Rick Binnendyk said since the letter was received he's received a phone call saying the inspection is likely to happen in mid-December.
Employee handbook examined
Councillors did a thorough read-through of the new town employee handbook draft but stopped short of approving it completely during their Nov. 26 meeting.
Instead, council set administration the task of researching sick day policies. The draft has sick time accruing at the rate of 1.25 days a month, with no rollover into the next year and the time having no cash value.
A motion to change what month of Consumer Price Index reports are used to determine cost-of-living raises was passed. Council switched it from January to November.
Other employee handbook highlights discussed by council included policies around driving abstracts and consideration of how municipal employees' overtime is handled.
The draft was tabled until the next meeting for administration's research on sick days.
Electronic voting policy considered
Mayor Dennis Cooper brought forward the issue of electronic voting during the meeting after Coun. Chad Hoffman raised concerns over the process.
Cooper said the motion to purchase the fire department's newest engine was voted on via email because it was time sensitive. However, he said Hoffman rightly pointed out the vote should have been ratified at the next regular meeting and wasn't.
“I don't agree with our email process,” Hoffman said during the Nov. 26 meeting. He said he thinks more consideration was needed for the purchase.
Cooper noted the fire truck, which was purchased from Pitt Meadows, B.C., for a price of $9,500, came with a large amount of equipment on it, saving the town money. The report said the truck was purchased with a donation from PennWest Exploration.
As for email voting, he noted the process went into place during a previous council term when quick decisions were needed on the multiplex building process.
Council voted unanimously to ask administration to research a new email voting policy.
The vote to ratify the purchase of the fire truck, however, saw Hoffman vote against the motion. The rest of council present voted for it.
Councillors Kathy Sitter and Danielle Klooster were absent from the meeting.
