Town of View Royal Advisory Committee Procedures

Town of View Royal Advisory Committee Procedures

1.0 General

1.1 The Chief Administrative Officer has administrative responsibility for each committee and will assign both a staff member to be the committee liaison and a committee secretary.

2.0 Appointments

2.1 All committee appointments shall be made by Town Council for a term of two years with one half of the membership being replaced annually.

2.2 In making appointments, Council may invite nominations and recommendations from the appropriate professional or trade organizations but shall not be bound thereby.

2.3 Committee appointments shall be made by Council in February of each year and the term shall commence on the first day of March, except in the case of an appointment to fill a vacancy occurring through the death, resignation or disqualification of a member which may be made at any time after such vacancy occurs and which shall be for the remainder of the term.

2.4 If Committee appointments have not been made by the first day of March as described in section 2.3, the term of existing members will be extended until such time as new members are appointed.

2.5 Within the first two committee meetings of each year commencing on March 1st, one committee member must be selected Chair and one Vice Chair.

2.6 After serving two consecutive terms (four years) on the same committee, a member may be deemed ineligible to serve on that committee for a third term. However, if a member is deemed ineligible, the member is eligible to apply for and serve on another committee.

2.7 Council shall appoint two Councillor liaisons as non-voting committee members and a Council alternate;

2.8 Committees will have a maximum of twelve members each – including the Council liaison members – none of whom shall be a family member of the Mayor or any of the Councillors.

2.9 Committee members will serve without remuneration by the Town. However, the Town will pay their reasonable and necessary out-of-pocket expenses that arise directly out of the performance of their duties subject to the approval of the Chief Administrative Officer.

3.0 Meetings

3.1 Committees will be governed by the applicable provisions of Council’s Procedure Bylaw that pertain to Council advisory bodies as identified in Section 93 (3) of the Community Charter. These provisions include, but are not limited to, conflict of interest, the keeping of minutes, openness of meetings and procedures for closed meetings.

3.2 A quorum shall comprise the following:

• If a committee has ten appointed voting members, quorum is six voting members;
• If a committee has eight or nine appointed voting members, quorum is five voting members;
• If a committee has six or seven appointed voting members, quorum is four voting members;
• If a committee has four or five appointed voting members, quorum is three voting members; and
• If a committee has three appointed voting members, quorum is two voting members.

3.3 Prior to compilation of the agenda, the recording secretary will confirm attendance with members to ensure quorum will be met. If there are insufficient members present within ten minutes of the proposed meeting start time, the meeting will not proceed and the agenda items may be considered at the following committee meeting.

3.4 The Chief Administrative Officer may cancel a committee meeting if there are insufficient agenda items or quorum, as confirmed by the recording secretary through section 3.3, will not be met.

3.5 All committees will meet on the fourth Tuesday of the following months:

• January
• March
• May
• September
• November

For urgent business, including development application presentations, committee meetings may be convened in months not listed in this section, to assist Council in its timely consideration of matters.

3.6 Where appropriate, joint meetings will be held to facilitate presentations. For urgent business, including development application presentations, joint committee meetings may be convened in months not listed in section 3.5, to assist Council in its timely consideration of matters.

3.7 Committee members are expected to attend the formal committee meetings described in section 3.5 and those joint meetings described in section 3.6 on a regular basis. Three consecutive absences from these formal committee meetings may result in removal from the committee.

3.8 Committees may choose to convene on the “off meeting” months, independent of Town resources or support, to share ideas.

3.9 Meetings may not exceed two hours in length unless otherwise extended by a unanimous resolution of voting members then present.

3.10 Presentations by development applicants, whether to a joint meeting or regular advisory committee meeting, may not exceed thirty minutes in length.

3.11 Immediately after a joint meeting held to receive a development application presentation as described in section 3.6, committees may convene separately to form recommendations in the form of resolutions to Council.

3.12 If quorum is not met for a committee at a joint meeting, that committee can hear the presentation and, where the joint meeting was held to receive a development application presentation as described in section 3.6, the committee members present may convene separately immediately after the joint meeting to provide input to Council in the form of meeting notes.

3.13 The staff liaison or delegate to the committee will always be present at meetings. Other staff may be present at committee meetings to provide advice. No staff member can vote.

3.14 The committee secretary will solicit on-mandate agenda items from the Chair, the Council liaison and the staff liaison; prepare the committee agendas; and keep minutes of meetings, including the attendance of members at each meeting. The committee secretary must publish minutes for the committee’s approval and make the minutes available to the public once approved by the committee.

3.15 Committee agendas are to be published and distributed by the Tuesday in advance of the scheduled meeting. Where appropriate, electronic distribution of the agenda to committee members will be employed.

3.16 Where appropriate, agenda items will be accompanied by a standardized staff report and the staff liaison or other staff member will be available to speak to the report at the committee meeting.

3.17 Committee minutes will be provided to Council at Council’s next scheduled meeting. Where appropriate, advisory committee recommendations will also be incorporated into the staff report that is presented to Council, allowing for the presentation of and staff comment upon advisory committee rationale, context and background material for the recommendation. The Council liaison is encouraged to provide additional information at the Council meeting to elaborate on the advisory committee recommendations.

3.18 A respectful and cooperative relationship between committee members and staff shall be maintained at all times.

4.0 Decision-making

4.1 All committee decisions are determined by a majority vote of the voting members present at the meeting.

4.2 In accordance with the applicable provisions of Council’s Procedure Bylaw and the Community Charter, any member who has a direct or indirect pecuniary interest in an application or other matter being dealt with by the committee must advise the Chair, and the member will be excused from that portion of the committee meeting.

4.3 Only committee members, including the Council liaison members, may take part in committee debate. Only committee members may vote on a matter before the committee; however, the Council liaisons and Council alternate on a committee may not vote.

4.4 Committees may deal with any matter that is within their mandate as listed in “Advisory Committee Mandates” on page 1 of this document. Committees must deal with all matters referred to them by Council.