New Westminster city council is seeing clarity about the way council members bring forward motions for council’s consideration.
Until the recent election, city council had been accepting motions from council members, without requiring them to have served a “notice of motion” ahead of time. That was a change from the previous practice, which required council members to serve notice of motion (unless an item was time sensitive and council waived that requirement) and deal with it at a subsequent meeting.
At Monday’s meeting, council unanimously approved a motion by councillors Daniel Fontaine and Paul Minhas to have staff report back on the practice of notices of motion. Their motion stated there has been an “apparent discrepancy” between how the bylaw is interpreted and how it had been applied by the past council.
The motion, considered at the Jan. 30 meeting, asks staff to clarify the situation and to determine what the correct procedure is. It also directs staff to report back at the Feb. 13 council meeting with recommendations to improve the city’s council procedures bylaw to ensure it no longer lacks clarity and is less subject to interpretation.
“Although this appears to be, and it is, a very technical motion, it does speak to the core of our procedures bylaw and it speaks to how we operate within this council, and to make sure that rules that are listed in bylaws are adhered to and they are applied equally, not only during one term of council but in between and through terms of council,” Fontaine said. “As has been noted, in the past several months, we have effectively changed the way that we have been operating our procedures here.”
At the Nov. 28 council meeting, staff said the city was going back to the previous process of requiring notice of motions, a decision made during discussions between staff and Mayor Patrick Johnstone.
“I think, your worship, you are interpreting the rules slightly differently than your predecessor. And, as I've noted in council chambers, I support you on that,” Fontaine said Monday. “I believe that council should have two weeks’ notice of any motion that's brought forward to allow the public the opportunity to know what's coming forward and to allow the public an opportunity to speak, should they wish to do so.”
Fontaine said he brought the motion forward after speaking to “independent legal counsel and to parliamentarians” around the lack of clarity around the city’s procedures bylaw, as to whether or not councillors are required to provide two weeks’ notice when presenting motions.
“The way the procedure bylaw is drafted currently, it can be interpreted in two ways. And if you speak to anyone in the legal profession or parliamentarians, it's best not to have laws that can easily be interpreted in two different ways,” he said. “It should be a lot clearer.”
Fontaine has expressed concern that the previous council considered a motion (at its July 11, 2022 meeting) to begin the process of updating the city’s logo and phasing out the use of the “Royal City” moniker in its branding, even though it had not been mentioned beforehand.
“The public had absolutely zero opportunity to see that, with the exception of a few days on the weekend,” he said. (Council agendas, at that time, were released to the public on Friday afternoons. Staff are now working to provide the bulk of the council agendas on the Wednesday before council meetings.)
