Council makes progress on Town Hall plan

Council makes progress on town hall planning

May 14, 2019 | 2:14 PM

After nearly an hour and a half of debate, Vernon city council made some progress with planning their upcoming town hall.

The town hall meeting will take place within 30 days and run from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

The meeting will be held in a city-owned building such as the Performing Arts Center or the Recreation Center auditorium.

Those individuals who wish to speak at the town hall meeting will have a maximum of two minutes to make their point on issues relating to crime, vagrancy, open drug use and the controversial overdose prevention site.

“For me this is information that has already been received twice, what are we hoping to receive that is new?” said Councillor Kelly Fehr who was absent at last council meeting when the town hall was approved.

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No presentations or directed questions at members of council will be permitted at the meeting.

” It is not fruitful at all, I see myself as one of the council members so I don’t think that would be very helpful,” said Mayor Victor Cumming.

A facilitator will also be used to conduct the meeting, and the city will release a request for proposals to find the right candidate sometime soon.

Councillor Kari Gares initially suggested using Aly Pain from The Conflict Coach , but council defeated the motion and wanted to explore more options .

Missed the boat ?

During discussions, some councillors wondered if the town hall is too late.

Council said incorrectly that Interior Health would be releasing the RFP by May 24.

” My concern is that we are going to miss the boat ,” said Councillor Brian Quiring who suggested that Council host an emergency committee of the whole meeting after they meet with Interior Health on Thursday, May 16.

” We do not have enough time to pull the town hall together before we have to get something to IH. They are doing their consultation process this week, ” he added.

Councillor Scott Anderson put forward a motion to ask Interior Health to stall the request for proposals for at least one month until more consultation takes place.

” I think a town hall is necessary for a lot of reasons and I think IH’s deadline is actually a little arbitrary, I think they are trying to check the boxes saying that they are consulting people and they are in fact consulting people, but what they are not consulting is the community,” he said.

But according to Interior Health, May 24 is not the date they will be releasing the RFP. Instead they will be doing consultations with various stakeholders until that date.

Regardless council voted unanimously in support of the motion.