One of Leo Facio's hopes, if elected, was to return to two meetings a month for council, and a calendar reflecting that change was adopted on Monday night.
Council will now meet twice a month, with a few exceptions. For the past calendar year, the Village held council meetings only once a month. That change was made by previous council and former Mayor Ken Becotte, partly for the purpose of reducing the work load for staff preparing for meetings, and to allow for meatier agendas.
The number of meetings held per month do not affect a councilor or mayor's pay, it was pointed out on Monday night. They will be held the first and third Mondays of the month, with the exception of January, July, August and September.
Another change to council procedures allowed new Councilor Sonja Reyerse to voice her first opposition to a bylaw.
Public council meetings will now be open to any question from the public, regardless of whether an issue was on the agenda. Previously, question period was limited to items on the agenda.
Reyerse voiced her concerns over this, and suggested that meetings be adjourned before the open public question period began. Then, a public meeting could take place, she said. She made a motion to amend the bylaw.
However, Jackson worried that "you would lose your authority to adjourn a meeting" after the questioning started.
The motion was defeated due to lack of a second vote.
Reyerse was the sole councilor to vote against the Council Procedural Bylaw, 997.
Stop the leaks
The Village office is in need of roof repairs, and council approved a staff recommendation to go ahead with an asphalt shingle replacement.
The report stated that the new roof should cost about $15,000 and would be the safest choice when considering the risk of interface forest fires. The report cited the 2003 Okanagan Mountain Park Wildfire, which caused the construction industry to pay closer attention to the "interface" area between forests and communities.