A draft document outlining how council, staff, and citizens will do the work of local government together, is projected to be complete next month.
This is according to comments from the consultant and the committee chair, Couns. Norman Mann.
The "probably early March" target was determined at the conclusion of the Ad Hoc Procedural By-law committee meeting, January 30.
More than 100 responses to the survey
"There were more than 100 responses to the survey, and while that might not seem like a lot, in the sense of the population of Elliot Lake, we consider this number to actually be a good response from the public," the consultant commented.
Couns. Mann agreed. "I think 100 comments from the community is a good number. There's a lot of people in Elliot Lake that do watch what we do and there's a very active group on social media that will definitely comment."
Over 30 years experience
Clerks on Call, the consultant, describes their firm "a municipal management consulting team that specializes in municipal council and board governance, administration services and mentoring/coaching."
"We have combined our experiences and wealth of knowledge gathered from decades of municipal public service to offer a range of specialized services. One of which is assisting municipalities with updates to their Procedure By-laws and then providing training to council members on the various aspects of their updated by-law."
The two principals each described their experience in municipal government as over 30 years.
Council complimentary of support from clerk's department
Mayor Andrew Wannan expressed appreciation. "I think our staff do a great job with the guidelines."
Other councillors agreed. Mann summarized, "To echo the mayor's comments, I think we're very fortunate to have a strong clerk and deputy clerk to be able to support the council through process as well, which definitely helps."
Training on the many types of motions
Deputy Mayor Charles Flintoff, observed that the variety of motions "still seems complicated," as he cited six different types of motions as an example.
The consultant assured council, "That's what some of the training will take a look at because it can be complicated - the different motions, but with some training and some resources available, I think we can make that easier."
Question period remains a question
The matter of allowing questions from the public received some attention during the meeting. Most of the comments were unspecific.
Mann commented that the previous council was not comfortable with the question period.
And while Mann said he did not want to see council's back toward the citizens - an obvious word-picture, there was little said at the meeting to point to as evidence of an appetite among the council for the return of a question period.
Question period was removed during a revision by the previous council and a public input session was instituted in its place.
The public input session allows up to two minutes for citizen's input but no questions. However, council has frequently allowed more than two minutes.
'Yours and the public's needs'
The consultants expressed their thanks for the councillors' input. "That will assist us to be able to deliver a new, comprehensive by-law that will meet your and the public's needs."
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Committee moving ahead with Procedural By-law review process