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A Free Weekly Publication Serving All of Beaver County Wednesday, 28, 2022 2022, Volume Volume 15 15, Issue Issue 739 WednesdaySeptember February 16
Beaver County to handle budget County to hire communications talks differently this year Patricia Harcourt Beaver County councillors agreed to a new approach to budget deliberations following a presentation at the September 21 regular meeting of council. The report provided to council was prepared by the new GM of Corporate Services Tolu Maraiyesa and finance intern Ethan Forrest. It called for a budget meeting schedule consisting of three days of closed session workshops with Chief Administrative Officer Kayleena Spiess to be held November 30 December 2. This would be followed by three days of open session special budget meetings from December 7-9. The report stated that this would provide more time to the budget in block form. “It will also give council a greater insight into what is contained in the budget and most importantly, how this year’s budget ties into council’s goals.” Forrest stated that “the budget process is already well underway,” adding that, “We want more time with council.” The first three days would be strictly for information only, with the following three days a special council for debate and providing direction to administration, he said. The budget would be passed at the regular meeting of council on December 14, which will be held instead of one on December 21, which “is too close to Christmas,” he said. Councillor Lionel Williams (Division 2) asked if councillors
would be allowed to ask questions during the first three presentation/information stage. To that, CAO Spiess said that any questions would be “flagged” for discussion in the open session later, which she called “deliberation days.” During the open session period, Spiess said there would be an “exchange of information,” regarding the challenges and successes of the budget, along with an “explanation of the numbers.” She also said “there will be a story line to the budget,” and “the public will see the presentation.” On November 23 council will be presented with their binders to peruse. Williams said he believes “it will be a struggle not to discuss” budget items, referring to the closed session presentation when there is supposed to be information shared with council but no discussion. However, Spiess said she “has been through this 11 times,” already in her career. And during the presentation she will stop and ask if there is anything that needs to be flagged. “Then we’ll talk about specific flagged items at the discussion stage,” she said. However, Deputy Reeve Gene Hrabec (Division 3) said: “We always have last minute items that can affect it,” asking: “How do we deal with those?” Hrabec also asked if council is passing an interim budget on December 14. Spiess replied that the full capital budget would be passed that day “because we need to get
going on projects,” in the new year. Also passed would be 50 per cent of the operating budget, she said. The rest of this would be finished and passed in the spring. Hrabec said that “the dates may be difficult to meet.” But Spiess countered that she felt the six days scheduled for budget discussions would be more than adequate, predicting that it may take only four or five days to complete the two sessions before December 14 when the budget was to be passed. A motion by Williams for council to agree to the recommended method of deliberating the budget, with three days of closed sessions for a workshop only and three days open session for discussion and debate was passed. “Administration presents the budget and council approves the budget,” said Smook, with the first part a presentation and second part a debate. On these six meeting dates, there will be no other business discussed in order to focus on meaningful budget discussion, said the report to council. The first meeting date for council in December would also be dedicated strictly to the budget, and the second meeting date, now set for December 14, would deal with other council business. Spiess said that the public would be provided a news release on the budget once it is approved December 14. “We will revisit it in the spring, closing the loop on the budget process,” she said, at that time.
intern
Patricia Harcourt Beaver County Council has authorized an application be made to host a municipal intern in communication through the internship program at Alberta Municipal Affairs. The government program provides a grant of $60,000 for salary and other expenses for the intern. Aimee Boese, GM of Community Services, explained that the internship program “provides support for municipalities to recruit, train and retain qualified post-secondary graduates to advance into leadership positions within Alberta municipalities.” She added: “As we go down the economic development or marketing strategies, we can get some help with this.” Communications falls under the administrative category, she said, with finance and land use planner streams also available. “We have a finance intern here already and that is working out really well,” she said. Stating he “supports young thoughts and new ideas,” Deputy Reeve Gene Hrabec (Division 3) made the motion to apply for a communications intern. Reeve Kevin Smook (Division 1) agreed, stating: “We’ve had some success with this.” The motion was carried. Boese’s report stated that a communications intern would assist with the following projects: assessing the current communication environment and identify ways to enhance it; develop a communications strategy and a marketing strategy, their tools and protocols; website management; handle public engagement and consultation events; develop public information documents; and, coordinate communications and media training with staff and council. Municipal Affairs provides a grant of $60,000 towards salary, benefits and other expenses, with October 3 being the application deadline. The intern would start the position in May 2023.