What is the role of councillors when out in the community interacting with residents, and what should they say about it in their councillors’ reports?
These are two of the questions raised at a City of Grand Forks council meeting last week, as council spent nearly 20 minutes debating councillors reports and business concerns about the Family Day festivities last month.
The discussion centred around Coun. Bev Tripp’s report to council. In it, she commends the organizers for the success of the Family Day celebrations downtown, but notes she has heard from business owners that they have little business and experience loss when Market Avenue is closed for activities. Tripp suggested several alternate locations in her report, including the streets around city hall and/or near City Park as alternatives to closing Market Avenue.
“There are businesses that literally cannot afford to stay open during the Saturday street closure because they lose most of their walk-in business. One reason for this is that many of our residents are seniors (and yes, they are part of families too), but they need parking access to frequent these businesses,” Tripp wrote in her report.
“I am not trying to slam anyone or make anyone look bad, but to address the situation,” Tripp said during the discussion.
Tripp also suggested that the Downtown Business Association do a study or a survey of their members on the issue.
In response, Coun. Chris Hammett (who acts as the council liaison to the DBA) responded, noting that all road closure requests are made by the DBA and that response from members regarding Family Day has been positive.
“The businesses recognize this is not intended to be a revenue generator for them, but also that anytime you can get 400 people to the downtown it’s a great opportunity for exposure, especially on a Saturday in February,” Hammett said. She added that she had spoken with the DBA and they reported receiving no negative feedback, only positive comments. She said many businesses reported having “exceptional” days.
After nearly 15 minutes of discussion about the Family Day celebration and location, Mayor Frank Konrad said he felt too much time was being spent on the issue.
“You can see the time we are wasting in council chambers, and I use the word wasting because it is outside of our parameters,” Konrad said. “First and foremost, if it is a business concern it should be addressed by DBA or the chamber,” he said.
After more discussion, in response to Tripp saying it was “none of [her] business” why the business did not address the concern with the DBA directly, Thompson said that council should not get involved.
“I realize this is an election year and some are campaigning,” she said. The councillors then became inaudible as they spoke over one another for about thirty seconds.
Coun. Julia Butler called a point of “un-Parliamentary procedure” for Thompson’s “attack” on another councillor. She then challenged the chair, Konrad. She and Tripp voted in favour of the challenge, while Thompson and Hammett did not. There was some confusion about whether the challenge was defeated and whether Konrad could vote on the challenge, given the two-to-two split because Couns. Colleen Ross and Neil Krog were absent.
“You should refrain from challenging the chair any further,” Konrad said in response.
“I fail to see how bringing the concerns of the businesses is a negative thing. We can take this as a positive and turn it into something that will make it better,” Tripp said. “I am mystified as to why other members of council see this as such a negative. I don’t know why if businesses are expressing distress why we would not try to find out what we can do for them.”
“These kinds of things do not belong in our reports, I think our reports should be about what we have done for the community as a whole,” Thomspon said.