We’ve been critical of meeting lengths for Estevan city council in the past.
There’s no reason that they should be having 15-minute open sessions, regardless of whether they meet once a month or once a week.
And we weren’t too excited when council opted to switch to one meeting a month. After all, when they tried it in 2015, many of the meetings were short (well under 30 minutes) with little discussion or debate.
There should be enough happening within the city for our council to have two good, productive meetings a month, regardless of whether it’s in January or September.
But at least the first meeting of 2020, under this new monthly meeting format, gave us plenty to discuss.
The meeting lasted more than 70 minutes. Sure there was a lot on the agenda – the mayor’s address, a visit by Estevan MLA Lori Carr, budget deliberations, police board election, committee lists, and the new Our Estevan community plan.
But it was the budget discussion, particulary when it came to discuss the proposed consumption rate increase on the water bills, that porved to be the enjoyable part of the evening, at least for those who enjoy good, informed and reasonable debates.
The council members didn’t grandstand. They didn’t waste each other’s time. They didn’t mock each other or call each other names. They didn’t rehash the same tired old debates. They didn’t play to the camera. And they didn’t spend an unnecessary amount of time talking about something that isn’t important to the residents of this city.
For 20 minutes, they debated in a civil and intelligent fashion, bringing forward good points on both sides of the argument. And it was something that’s important to residents, namely, the amount of money that people will pay on the water consumption portion of their utility bills.
And in the end, they came to a reasonable solution, namely, to increase the water consumption rate by six per cent, but not until July, when the pumphouse for the water intake project is scheduled to come online, and the cost of delivering a service to the people of the city is expected to go up.
(And let’s remember that service is better water, which most people will likely say is a good thing, and worth an extra $2.70 a month).
Council members seemed to notice that it was a good debate, too, because it was noted several times during the meeting that they wish they could have more debates like this more often.
Hopefully the residents of Estevan hope there will be more debates like that, too.
One of the common complaints we hear about council meetings is it feels like they’re following a script. It’s not something we’re going to accuse council of, but there is a sentiment out there, especially when the discussion is kept short on some pretty important topics.
There’s no way that the debate on Monday night was following a script.
The meeting wasn’t perfect. It would have been nice to have more discussion about the Our Estevan community plan initiative. It’s more than 100 pages in length, and will be vital in charting a course for this community over the coming years. A five-minute or 10-minute overview would have helped.
But generally, this was the type of meeting that people want to have from their city council members. I’m sure that those in towns, villages and rural municipalities want to have good meetings with lots of discussion, too.
Hopefully, this bodes well for the rest of the present council term.
