Open letter to council:
On Feb. 10, at the opening of the council meeting some folks were told, by a highly experienced councillor as he presented himself, that they could speak during public question and comment period.
This is always announced for folks to come forward to speak on anything in the agenda package, the reason being, that the public may have more information to impart to council prior to their decisions made during council meeting. This is only for items on the agenda as council members may not be familiar or have information on a subject brought forward not on the agenda.
The time to bring forward something, not on the agenda, is at the end of the meeting so if council considers that it needs further information or if they want to pursue an issue, they can ask staff for further information so that they may be informed.
There is also an opportunity for a group or one person to contact the corporate secretary to be a delegation and bring forward an issue, which again, council will decide if they want further information and if they want to pursue the issue.
The public question and answer period is limited to two minutes each to a total of 10 minutes. I understand that there was approx. 45 minutes taken up in this time by a group which should have been a delegation, limited to five minutes, after approval from the corporate secretary or they could have spoken after the meeting.
These are council’s own procedures and should be adhered to, a seasoned politician,should not be giving wrong advice to citizens and wasting staff and council time.
All council should be aware of these procedures and called a point of order. Respectfully,
Ellen Lewers
Sooke