Kamloops council group recommends new committee structure, no public on standing committees

KAMLOOPS — A Kamloops council group put together to examine council’s committee structure has concluded members of the public should not be on the city’s standing committees going forward.

The recommendation is one of a pair coming out of the Council Committee Governance Select Committee meeting held Thursday morning (May 11) at Kamloops City Hall. The committee includes Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson and Councillors Mike O’Reilly, Nancy Bepple and Margot Middleton.

City of Kamloops staff brought forward a pair of options for council’s committee structure going forward. The options were keeping a similar organizational structure to the previous structure — called a ‘hybrid’ committee structure — or eliminating standing committees and replacing them with weekly Committee of the Whole meetings.

Committee members considered the structures employed by nine other B.C. municipalities as they made their decision.

“We really got a view as to how other governments are able to work and we found the best way possible, we think moving forward, that will work for the City of Kamloops,” O’Reilly told CFJC Today Friday. “That background information really helps.”

After a debate, the committee voted in favour of the former option, which would see standing committees supporting City of Kamloops departments, themselves supported by select committees and working groups. Results of the vote were 3-1, with Hamer-Jackson the only opposing voice.

Image Credit: City of Kamloops

O’Reilly said one of the deciding factors against the second option, making greater use of Committee of the Whole, was the impact to taxpayers. Staff told the committee it would require another 1.0 FTE staffer to support weekly Committee of the Whole meetings.

“Part of the decision-making process was to find the most efficiencies and provide effective governance for the City of Kamloops,” he said.

Further rankling Hamer-Jackson was a decision made to have standing committees consist only of councillors or the mayor.

“There was a recommendation also made that standing committees only be made up of elected officials,” said O’Reilly. “That was passed with a 3-1 vote, so staff will be doing research on that and coming back to the council meeting on May 30 for a debate and discussion.”

The entire process of pausing standing committees and reviewing terms of reference was prompted by Hamer-Jackson proposing several members of the public sit on — or chair — standing committees.

The recommendations will be subject to further debate at Kamloops council’s regular meeting on May 30. If they pass, three existing select committees that were launched to study time-sensitive matters while the standing committees are on pause will be folded into the new standing committees. The Council Committee Governance Select Committee would then be dissolved.