For the first time since June 29, 2009, Westlock town council failed to meet quorum, resulting in last week's meeting being cancelled. At the scheduled Aug.
For the first time since June 29, 2009, Westlock town council failed to meet quorum, resulting in last week's meeting being cancelled.
At the scheduled Aug. 13 meeting, only mayor Bruce Lennon and councillors Robin Brett and Clem Fagnan were in attendance. In order for a meeting to proceed, at least four councillors need to be present.
Lennon said having the meeting not go forward won't have a big impact on the town's business.
"There's nothing urgent that was on the agenda that we have to deal with," he said.
However, he said if something does arise that can't wait until the next meeting on Sept. 10, there is a mechanism in place to address that.
"If we need to have something done, we can call a special meeting, so that's not the end of the world," he said.
Still, Lennon explained that not having the meeting take place is somewhat of a black eye for the town.
"It shouldn't happen," he said. "It absolutely shouldn't happen, but unfortunately it did and we don't have much recourse at this point."
Leading up to the meeting, Lennon said he was aware than councillors Darrel Erickson and Sheila Foley would be absent. Councillors David Truckey and Marjorie Sterling Miller were the "surprise" no shows, he said.
Town CAO Darrell Garceau explained that it was partly administration's fault that the meeting did not happen.
"Through no fault of council, administration didn't pick up on the fact that four out of seven (councillors) weren't going to be here on the 13th day of August," he said.
Without enough advance knowledge of the councillor shortage, he said there wasn't enough time to give notice that the meeting would need to be cancelled. As such, the town's bylaws dictated the available councillors had to gather and wait to see if enough would arrive to allow the meeting to proceed.
"Our bylaw defines you must show up on the regularly scheduled day unless you post otherwise," Garceau said. "We attempt not to waste one's time, but it was just an unfortunate reality that only three out of seven members of council were in attendance."
Given the lack of urgent items on the agenda, all items due to be discussed last week will be rolled forward and added to the Sept. 10 agenda.
Lennon said the only item on last week's agenda that could have been pressing dealt with loans requested by the Westlock Foundation. However, he said while that issue does need to be resolved, the lack of a resolution won't hold up completion of the expansion.
