WESTLOCK — The Town of Westlock has an updated council procedure that sets rules around who can attend meetings in person and who can tune in virtually.
Councillors unanimously passed second and third reading of the bylaw at the Sept. 9, regular council meeting by a vote of 5-0, with Coun. David Truckey absent and Coun. Abby Keyes seat vacant, after she officially resigned in August.
It was the third time the bylaw was before councillors, with their first discussion at the committee of the whole meeting in April and at its first reading Aug. 12, where councillors reviewed the bylaw and requested several changes including those to provide clarity on meeting through electronic communications, agenda submission timelines, audio and video recording retention, delegations and council requests, and department reports were moved to committee of the whole meetings.
Town of Westlock CAO Simone Wiley highlighted the changes and there was more discussion and feedback from councillors.
Town of Westlock Mayor Jon Kramer noted the changes to section five, which states that only members of council and administration and out-of-town delegations are permitted to attend council meetings virtually.
“My hope would be that virtual (attendance) in the future would be open for everybody, just for the convenience of it, but I think our tech limitations now is what has led us to this, in that anonymous viewing or participation, is there’s no way around it,” said Kramer. “So my hope is that once tech limitations change, maybe we can see ourselves making another change in this as well, including online participation a little bit more.”
Coun. Murtaza Jamaly agreed with the mayor’s point and also noted that section of the bylaw could be improved in the future by defining the difference between ‘attend’ (virtually) and ‘observe and participate'.
“Councillors participate and make up the means to participate electronically, whereas the ability to observe might be something that we can allow for electronically and it does require less in terms of moderation because it’s not a two-way thing,” said Jamaly, noting there are municipalities that allow people to observe meetings remotely.
Coun. Curtis Snell asked if there were ways of verifying (virtual attendees) and noted the procedure of asking in-person attendees for their name and town, when participating at council meetings.
“It’s kind of on the honour system that way,” said Wiley.
