Advisory Committee Mandates and Procedures - Section 4.0 Decision-making
An excerpt from the official procedures manual regarding how advisory committees make decisions, handle pecuniary interests, and formulate recommendations.
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.
4.5 Proposed initiatives that a committee would like to undertake that are not expressly listed in “Advisory Committee Mandates” must be forwarded to Council for consideration. Committees must not use staff resources to research and develop new policy initiatives that have not received prior approval of Council.
4.6 When committee members are approached by the public and the media, they must identify that they are presenting their personal views only.
4.7 Sub-committees may be struck, with the prior approval of Council, to consider items within the committee’s mandate.
4.8 When a committee believes that a specific issue of importance should be dealt with other than by the advisory committee or sub-committee, it may recommend to Council that a task force be struck to review the matter.
4.9 Committee recommendations should be formulated with a view to environmental, economic and social sustainability.