Student councillor
Gibsons Mayor Bill Beamish asked council to hold off on the first, second and third readings of the bylaw amendment that would allow for a student councillor.
Beamish proposed the idea at the Nov. 20 council meeting, but when the necessary amendments to the Council Procedure Bylaw came up for discussion at the Dec. 4 meeting, he asked for them to be withdrawn.
“We’re still in discussions with the school district to clarify the procedures… In addition to that there are other amendments we want to make to the procedures bylaw and rather than keep bringing the procedure bylaw back and changing it over the next period of time, we’ll put all [the changes] into one,” he said.
The other change is to add a second period for public inquiries to the committee and council agendas. Beamish said the goal is to allow people a chance to ask questions on items appearing on those agendas before council debates them and makes decisions.
Pay
Council adopted its new pay structure in a unanimous vote Dec. 4.
Effective Jan. 1, 2019, councillors will earn $20,000 per year and the mayor will earn $40,000. The increase is partly to compensate for the loss of a tax-free allowance for elected officials and several B.C. communities, including Sechelt and the Sunshine Coast Regional District, have also increased gross pay in light of the change.
Council also voted to waive the 2019 cost of living increase called for in the Council Remuneration and Expense Bylaw given that they’re already getting a substantial raise.
