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Council Meeting November 20 2007 - recap

I think this was the longest council meeting in the term of this council (now 2+ years).  Read on to understand why:

The meeting started with opportunities for public feedback on 3 separate development variance permits (dvps). Dvps are used for minor changes in regulations such as changes to open space (setbacks) from building to lot boundaries and changes to fence heights.

We approved dvps to allow the building of a garage workshop and to increase the fence height for a residence on Valdes Drive, and to allow for the construction of lots on a sloping part of new subdivision in bachelor heights.

We denied a dvp allowing the construction of a new residence on St Paul Street. This was denied because of potential impact to the immediate neighborhood (imposing walls too close to property line) and because of proposed placement of the garage.

We had 3 public inquiries concerning a pesticide bylaw. From where I sat, people generally thought that we should take some action soon, hopefully within this council meeting. 

Proposals to subdivide a lot in Westsyde and to allow a one person counselling business in a residential Dufferin neighborhood were approved for public hearing. Your council okayed the aesthetic look of multi family part of Orchard Walk in Valleyview.0

We approved the creation of bicycle lanes on Valleyview Drive between Vicar Rd and Highland Dr and between Comazzetto Rd and Highway 1. The community composting budget was increased to reflect impacts of grinding and hauling mountain pine beetle wood.

The $100 000 loan repayment from the Kamloops Blazers Sports Society was put toward the community's Sport Dreams Fund which helps support low income youth in sports.

Parks, Rec, and Culture director Byron McCorkell presented an extensive report on pesticide use and opinions. We ultimately reworked his recommendation to firm up the content of a bylaw and to shorten the time frame. The new pesticide bylaw will require homeowners and companies to gain some form of city recognized accreditation before using pesticides and is scheduled to  come into force by April 2009. Councillor Tina Lange moved a motion that we also immediately require solid notification before the application of pesticides. This motion failed, with Tina and myself in support of the immediate move. This still may happen as we draft the actual pesticide reduction bylaw.

We approved new Fetal Alcohol Syndrome signs to go into restaurants and liquor serving establishments in the city.

We proclaimed YMCA Peace Week for November 17th to 24th. We heard delegations from Venture Kamloops and from a gentleman who says the development cost charge changes we made caught him in an unfair situation. We promised to ask city staff to look into his specific situation to see if we can resolve the issue.

My Council Schedule...

I thought I would post a calendar with meetings and events I attend on your behalf. The calendar is available here and is also now linked from the right hand side bar of your screen.

You should probably know as much as possible about what I am up to - for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, obviously you pay my salary.

Secondly, giving you a sense of what I am up to gives you the ability to ask questions and suggest other activities, and to know what a week of a member of council is like.

Thirdly, if you want to schedule something with me, it gives you some idea of potential dates and times (I can't guarantee everything in my life (work, family, totally confidential stuff) will be on the calendar, but I will try to post as much as I can)

At long last, a Pesticide bylaw for Kamloops...

Democracy is not easy or especially quick. But, for making decisions that best reflect the will of the community, you can't beat slogging through a democratic process. After a two year formal process, Kamloops will now have pesticide bylaw in place by April 2009. This bylaw will not be as strong against pesticide use as some would have wanted. The very fact we will have a bylaw at all will perhaps displease others. These views have at times been reflected around the council table.

What the bylaw will reflect is what all of members of Council could agree to. That is that we all wanted to try to reduce indiscriminate or uneducated use of pesticides in our community.  What we have ultimately done is to put in place an pesticide reduction education campaign and a requirement that all people and companies using pesticides must, by April 2009, get certified in their use through a city hall recognized accreditation program.

In Sept 2008, council will decide on an accreditation scheme.

TRU Africa Day

TRU is really doing amazing well in providing a wonderful educational environment for international students. The numbers are pretty wonderful. Out of a student body of about 9000, TRU has over 1000 international students from approximately 65 countries.

Yesterday, I had the great honour of being invited to the TRU Africa Day put on by the TRU Afro Club. These talented students shared African culture with us through music, dance, poetry, lectures, and fashion. Having traveled and worked in Africa, I felt a little homesick for this incredible continent - the birthplace of our species.

Remembering Robert Dziekanski...

Robert Dziekanski, who died after being tasered at Vancouver Airport would have been a Kamloopsian, if not for this tragic "perfect storm" of truly unfortunate circumstances. I attended his "celebration of life" yesterday. Obviously, reporters and camera folk were out in full complement. But, for us here, I think this is a truly intimate, local happening.

A member of our community, Robert's mother Zofia Cisowski, worked very hard to bring her son to Canada and now she is devastated. We as a community will, as is our nature, surround Zofia with love and gentle caring. We will take care of our own.

I was asked to say a few words, as a person but also on your behalf. I wrote them down so I could get through this difficult task and amazing privilege:

Good Day. As mentioned, My name is Arjun Singh and I am a member of Kamloops City Council. I am here today to mourn with you and many many others all over the world over the tragic death of Mr Robert Dziekanski. i especially want to express my sincere condolences to Robert's mother. I cannot imagine the hurt and pain you must feel, Mrs Cisowski, and I want to personally offer my and our support to you in any way I am able. I am saddened that we did not have the opportunity to welcome Robert in our community. I want to also express my thanks and welcome to those of you who have travelled from other places. It means a lot for you to be here today.

I never want to close on a sad note. So, I would like to end my remarks today by celebrating the life of Mr Robert Dziekanski. I did not know him, but I have seen him in the paper described as a beautiful man, an avid star gazer and geographer. These are wonderful descriptions of any person. May his soul rest in peace.

Backlog of Council Recaps - Now one less...

Earlier this afternoon, the last council meeting recap I had written and posted was from the Sept 11 2007 meeting. I have now completed a recap for Sept 18 2007. Yay!

Maybe by the end of this week, I will have caught up.

At the Canadian Community of Dialogue and Deliberation Conference - www.c2d2.ca

Quite an amazing day at the Canadian Community of Dialogue and Deliberation conference in Vancouver. What I am here for is to learn about ways to better engage citizens in the work at city hall and to look for techniques your city council could employ to better discuss complex (often "hot") issues and make better decisions. I am not being disappointed. Three interesting takeaways from today:

1. Replace hard positions with perspectives: Last week when council was discussing putting a fence on summit drive to try to prevent people from jaywalking in that high traffic area, what we should probably have been talking about was how to increase pedestrian and driver safety. We all, pretty quickly, took positions on a fence, when we might have looked at other persepectives - other methods of increasing safety perhaps.If we had come up with an alternative on which we could all have agreed, we wouldn't have had to refer it to the police committee and leave the problem dangling out there yet again.
2. The need to provide feedback on feedback: When the city held one of their last public meetings on the downtown plan, a lot of people asked questions and provided feedback. City staff wisely posted responses to the questions and the thoughts on the city web site soon after. The responses indicated whether the city planned to incorporate or not incorporate feedback given and,  if memory serves, explained why. I think this was brilliant - it gives people the certainty that, if their feedback did not make into the plan, that at least their ideas were considered. It motivates people to stay involved with future city consultations.
3. An elected person's feelings don't matter: Stolo Nation Grand Chief Doug Kelly shared some insights from his uncle who told him, upon his election, that his job was actually quite simple. That he was to listen, learn, and act  - and, in that process, his feelings don't matter . It's pretty easy for a city council member to take negative or positive feedback to heart. But, one must try not to let personal like or dislike interfere with working on community issues and proposals. One can't be objective, but one has to look at things from the perspective of what is felt is best for the community as a whole.

Council gets behind push for a Kamloops Network on Facebook...

I love Facebook and I use it nearly every day personally, professionally, and in my public service. The problem with Facebook for a Kamloopsian is that there is no Facebook network for Kamloops. When you look for one, Facebook only offers the opportunity to sign up for the Kelowna netowrk.  Here is a screenshot:

I know Facebook will probably get a Kamloops network soon. But, the sooner the better. There are thousands of people here who use Facebook  - and not just young people. Having our own network will give us access to the full range of Facebook features.

So I am please Council has unanimously supported a letter to Facebook to request a Kamloops network as soon as possible.

Cities Fit For Children conference...

Last week, Thursday and Friday, I attended the Cities Fit For Children summit for municipalities. I want to thank Val Janz from the local Make Children First organization for encouraging me to go. I learnt a lot about how parent-child interaction is so critical to healthy development for the 0 to 6 years. I also found out what different communities are doing in partnering with school districts to use unused classrooms for preschool and daycare programs. I found an observation from keynoter Suzanne Crowhurst Lennard interesting - she said that high rises are very unfriendly to children and to families and any building should be a maximum of six stories.

I have a page of scrawl that I have yet to process from the sessions - so there may be more to post on takeaways.

My friend, Jordan Bateman, Langely Township Councillor, was also in attendance and his report is here.

Water Meters - an Update

By far, the longest discussion we had at the council meeting this week concerned water meters. We were presented with a variety of programs that ranged from the status quo to a voluntary / mandatory for new residential construction mix.

The status quo won't work. Water consumption in Kamloop is still about 4 times the national average and still much higher than neighboring communities like Kelowna and Vernon. City staff rough estimations are that, without water meters, we will pay 68 million dollars to upgrade our water pipes and pumping stations. With mandatory metering, we're at somewhere around 30 million. Even if these estimates lack a certain specificity, the $38 mil difference is still enough to account for that.

We voted to ask staff for a report on with more specifics on mandatory metering. In my view, we either pay less now, or pay more later. I also think we should consider a flat rate for a certain quantity of water, and then charge more as usage increases.

I also think we should consider grants for Xeriscaping gardens. I stole this idea, and many others, from a great comment thread on the blog a while ago. Very good reading indeed.

I still lean heavily towards supporting mandatory metering.