The terms of reference for an overarching committee that will play a lead role in developing a vision for Sundre was approved by council last week.
Linda Nelson, the town's chief administrative officer, offered some background during the Sept. 23 meeting, saying discussions for the creation of the Vision for Sundre Committee have been underway for many months.
“This is a committee of council,” said Nelson, adding a stakeholder group including “a large number of community members” had been formed to discuss its mandate. First on the to-do list, she added, was to draft a terms of reference document for council to approve.
Those terms outlined a request to have only one councillor sit on the committee, she said.
“The discussion was around this committee morphing into a number of other committees, so we wanted to have an opportunity to be able to place council members on other committees as they come up.”
Since council’s annual organizational meeting is scheduled for Oct. 21, Nelson suggested waiting until then to make the appointment official and sought the bylaw’s three readings from council.
Coun. Todd Dalke moved the first reading, which carried, followed by Coun. Charlene Preston moving the second reading, initiating a discussion.
Coun. Cheri Funke expressed uncertainty about the proposal to have only one council member sitting on the Vision for Sundre Committee.
Nelson said the suggestion arose from a discussion the committee had, and that council could also choose to have more representatives involved.
“But we will be asking for councillors to be on the other committees that form out of this overarching committee,” said Nelson.
“Instead of putting three councillors on this committee and then having them sitting on other committees as well, we thought it would be nice to have just the one committee that’s the parent committee, so to speak, that decides on what other committees should be formed,” she said.
“I see these committees as being formal committees of council,” she added.
For example, she anticipates there will be a downtown and highway corridor enhancement committee, which will likely be a long-standing group, as well as a tourism and a fundraising committee.
“And who knows what else will form.”
Depending on the magnitude of the other committees that are eventually formed, there could be more than one councillor’s presence required. For example, the downtown revitalization committee will be helping to create an overlay bylaw, and there should definitely be multiple councillors involved, she said.
“All appointments will come before council,” she said, adding no one will be arbitrarily assigned a role without an approved motion.
She expects the Vision for Sundre Committee, which in essence is the embodiment of council’s strategic priorities and goals, will end up meeting perhaps once a year with the rest of the committees that are formed underneath.
Coun. Paul Isaac said he was agreeable to having just one councillor sitting on the overarching committee.
“What I like, what I’m hearing, is that there’ll be more residents involved in some brainstorming,” said Isaac.
“I think that’s a good thing,” he said.
That approach, he added, will not only relieve some amount of pressure from council, but also “strengthen the relationship with our residents.”
Following a brief discussion, council unanimously carried the remaining readings.
