Citycouncil
Edmonton has many financial challenges that must be faced for the 2025 budget including a $34 million deficit. City administrators have recommended that city council implement a 8.1 per cent property tax increase and now propose city council reduce that number even more. City administrators have suggested a number of cost cutting measures and other ideas to consider including increasing Epcor’s dividend to the city, renegotiating the city’s phone contracts and slowing down the Heritage Program. City council will also look at a report recommending salary increases which may be not be wise considering the financial state and an upcoming election year.
On Wednesday City Council voted almost unanimously to send proposed changes to the code of conduct back to the drafting board so it can be reviewed again in the fall. The concerns of the proposed changes revolve around transparency, privacy, public disclosure and violations regarding the code of conduct.
The proposed amendments to the code of conduct bylaw that could go into effect this week make me think of the mushroom strategy, which says "keep em in the dark and feed em BS."
This Wednesday & Thursday, City Council will address a number of proposed changes to the code of conduct bylaw that concerns the public accountability of the same City Councillors. Unless I misread the Journal article, I think City Council has too much input into the code of conduct bylaw as it concerns Council itself.
Ward Anirniq Coun. Erin Rutherford says holding councillors accountable to the public is the point of this process. She thinks council needs to know more about the intended and unintended consequences of the clauses that are being proposed, and that they haven’t had time to really, fully shore that up and that it should be sent back for more work.
The residential parking permit program changes the City was to put into effect on June 1st weren't enacted upon and will be discussed at Wednesday's council meeting. Anne Stevenson, councillor for Ward O-day'min, who proposed the pause at the urban planning committee, said she heard a variety of concerns about the changes and doesn't think a decision will be made right away. She thinks the most important thing is that the City provide enough time for there to be back and forth communications between the City and the neighbourhoods before a decision is made.
Just because we hadn't heard anything about the possibility of Edmonton's river valley becoming a national urban park doesn't mean the idea was dead,....far from it. There must have been some secret meetings/discussions because City Council voted 10-3 to move forward with planning for a national park in the city’s river valley.
The next portion of planning does not commit the city to establishing a national urban park. Instead the planning phase would allow stakeholders to develop a vision for the park, define governance models and evaluate the impacts and risks.
No doubt there are many issues to be discussed regarding this next step and hopefully one of them is "what's the long term agenda behind this federal government overreach and who's behind it? While thinking about this, I'm reminded of the saying "give someone an inch and they'll take a mile'."
Unanimously! Unanimously! Unanimously! our City Council has repeated all too often as they've considered larger spending bills of late. Lorne Gunter of the Edmonton Sun writes that not one council member has stood up for the taxpayer and raised a dissenting vote.
This story is very disturbing and makes me question for how many more things does the end justify the means and are done in secret? I think Edmonton voters should be concerned that only Councillors Sarah Hamilton, Tim Cartmell, Jennifer Rice and Karen Principe opposed the secret deal. What does this say about the integrity of the other Councillors?
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The Councillors are like the Board of Directors of a corporation and if they tried to pull of some secret deal they would all be dismissed immediately. Dismaissal is probably out but I think some more than a slap on the wrist should happen now and that this should be front & centre in the next election.
A recent Leger poll seems to indicate the Edmontonions have soured on Mayor Sohi and the current council and many if not all would not be reelected in the next election.THe major concern seems to be that the Mayor and council are nore concerned with their agenda (ie. housing for homeless, climate change, bike lanes) than they are of the concerns of the City's tax paying citizens (ie. their own housing affordability, property taxes, homelessness).The Leger poll makes it clear that Sohi and Council are out of step with the majority of Edmontonions.
Yesterday was the second day of public hearings on Councils new district policy and most of the speakers were critical different reasons and opposed of the policy. Developers wanted more housing density while the general public argued the policy would encourage too much density and feared damage to historic neighbourhoods. Some said Council conferred more with developers than the general public.
Others feared their ability to move around the city could be restricted and the 15-minute cities or communities concept. Mayor Amarjeet Sohi, asked how the city can improve trust with citizens worried about 15-minute cities, and said council will continue assuring the public that there’s nothing in these policies, the City Plan, or zoning bylaws that restrict peoples’ movements. People who still have concerns about the 15-minute cities or communities concept are encouraged to contact their councillors.
Millwoods & Meadows citizens are encoured to contact Ward Karhiio councillor Keren Tang at 780-496-8142 or keren.tang@edmonton.ca
On Tuesday City Council decided that a dedicated shuttle bus service from downtown to the airport is just too costly. To launch the service was estimated to cost at least $10.3 and that would have to be supplemented by another $2.5 million annually to operate the route. Getting between the airport and downtown Edmonton will continue to require a stopover for anyone using transit.
City Council has scheduled a special meeting on February 2nd to discuss a number of new bylaws which they think will address public concerns. Read the Journal article below for more detail.
Like local and translocal jurisdictions in much of the western world Edmonton council has paid heed to and invested in the "green" movement. Not all investments, including "green" bring the promised and expected return. Fortunately there are are many like Lorne Gunter who discern this and will say the "green" emperors have no clothes.
This is along the lines of Bill C 67, Although I would agree that misinformation is a challenge, it is compounded by the fact that the Government will define the terms with a potentially political or biased polemic that could be tyrannical and coercive.