A meeting of Port Moody council’s committee of the whole scheduled for Tuesday evening will proceed, as will future council meetings.
But they’re going to look a lot different in this time of a pandemic, said city manager Tim Savoie.
Councillors and staff in the Inlet Theatre at city hall, where most meetings are conducted, will be seated further apart to accommodate the social distancing recommendations from the provincial health officer, Savoie said, and no more than 50 people will be allowed in the venue.
While that’s not normally a problem unless there’s a public hearing about a particularly contentious issue, Savoie said residents can still voice their thoughts in writing or by emailing [email protected]. All meetings in the theatre are also live-streamed online.
Several committee meetings, meanwhile, have been cancelled, including one for the finance committee scheduled for Tuesday afternoon. Among its agenda items was a further update to the city’s financial plan that now anticipates a budget increase of $1,392,000.
That translates to an additional hit of 3.22% to city taxpayers, although that’s less than the 3.7% increase that had been projected last December.
Savoie said cancellation of committee meetings is up to the discretion of committee chairs. He said the items on the agenda for today’s finance committee were “not deemed to be pressing at the moment,” and the city still has enough time to adopt its 2020 financial plan by May 15 deadline set by the province.
Tonight’s committee of the whole is expected to get an early look at several projects, including the massive redevelopment planned for Woodland Park, as well as consider a draft policy implementing interim guidelines for the construction of affordable housing as part of new large developments in the city.
As well, councillors will take a further look at a draft corporate policy to allow electronic participating in meetings, an issue that might now have a little more urgency as more people are asked to self-isolate.
