City council was unanimous in their support of a motion to have staff look into alternate meeting schedules.
While their Monday regular meeting only ran for 2.5 hours, council and city staff have struggled with a series of meetings over the past two months that pushed into the 4.5 to five-hour range. That prompted Coun. Helena Konanz to bring forward a notice of motion at the April 18 meeting.
“I think everyone is in agreement that we want staff to look into this,” she said. Staff had already begun research before getting direction from council, but Konanz said she hoped they could make it a priority so a new schedule can be readied for 2017.
Konanz said it is not about having shorter meetings, but being more efficient.
“I want us to be sharp at meetings and sometimes if they go late into the night I think that is difficult,” said Konanz.
She also said that Penticton city council’s meeting schedule mirrors that of much smaller communities, which usually have less items to deal with.
“We need to grow into a new schedule of meetings,” said Konanz, noting that West Kelowna—a similar sized municipality—has regular meetings twice a month during the day, with a separate, monthly, evening meeting.
“When they are split up, if there is a contentious issue that we need to think about, we have time,” said Konanz. “If we are planning on growing in the next little while … then we need to have council meetings that reflect that.”