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Session gives info about council duties

The municipal election may be several months away, but several potential candidates got a chance to learn about what a council does.
90743grandforksCouncilclassWEB
Doug Allin (far right)

The municipal election may be several months away, but several potential candidates got a chance to learn about what a council does.On May 14, the City of Grand Forks held an information session at council chambers for potential candidates for the November election.About a dozen resident showed up to hear from Mayor Brian Taylor and other councillors as well as city administrative officer Doug Allin."Mr. Allin and staff have put some real interesting (information) on the board that really summarizes some of the activities of council," said Taylor at the meeting. "There are councillors here today to discuss their own personal experiences. We're hoping we can have it interactive. We're not here to campaign or politic. We want to stay away from issues and talk about process and the demands of the job."  Allin told the attendees that there was a great deal to being a member of council. He went through most of the major issues council has to deal with including: developing bylaws, policies and resolutions; being on committees and groups as liaisons for the city; going to conferences; being on top of the written material; attending committee of the whole and regular council meetings; working with industry; planning for the city; and more."What we've done here is put together the process as we see it for local government and what the expectations are," said Allin at the meeting. "We start off with the legislation of governance—we can pass policy within our organization but the federal legislation prevails. And then it comes down to the provincial legislation, and then it comes down to our local governments. We still have to work with the Ministry of Community, Sport and Cultural Development. They're basically in charge of local governments in our province. When we have questions or there are hard questions from the community we often go to that area. Council may ask us (staff), 'what are we going to do about this?' and we'll go there."Allin talked about how important it is for council and the city to consider the community charter and other legislative documents."When we're making decisions, you might ask, 'What is all this bureaucratic red tape?' While, we have to look at all those things," he said. "Council has to consider all those things to. Council may ask us, 'We want a motion to do this,' and staff has to do all of this (preparation). Therein lies a bit of the challenge for the perception to the public."   The councillors then took questions from the audience. One attendee asked what each councillor's highs and lows have been. Another asked what the qualities are for being a strong council member.