Victoria council is hoping to provide more opportunities for the public to express concerns by tweaking its council procedures.
Council voted this week to expand the number of speakers who can address council at evening meetings, while adding three single-purpose evening meetings to the calendar.
Mayor Marianne Alto, who brought forward the motion, said the goal is to make better use of city staff time by consolidating evening meetings into one per month, while creating more chances for the public to address members of council.
“For me the priority is expanding the range of voices that we hear from. And I think that this’ll make people feel a little like it’s a little easier to get in front of council.”
The changes mean there will be only one evening council meeting each month. It will be held on the second Thursday of the month, and as many as 15 members of the public can address council on any topic for a maximum of five minutes per person.
Currently council has two evening meetings per month at which there is a limit of six speakers and time limits of three minutes per speaker.
Council has also agreed to add a meeting on the second Thursday of March for a town hall. The meeting will last up to two hours and allow the public to address council on any topic for a maximum of five minutes per person.
There will also be a meeting added on the second Thursday of June. That meeting will be considered an open house where information will be shared by city staff on a current topic of city action, policy, project or program.
The public will be able to ask questions and offer feedback, and council will be expected to attend the meetings.
Finally, there will be a meeting added on the second Thursday of November.
Again it will be an open-house format, but it will be exclusively used by organizations that receive $25,000 or more in city funds to report on the use and community benefits of that funding.
Organizations will be invited to present for up to 10 minutes, but they will not be required to do so.
There are 43 groups that receive funding in excess of $25,000 from the city.
Coun. Matt Dell said he likes the idea of more public engagement at meetings, since it will bring back some of the atmosphere that was lost when the province all but prohibited public hearings on land-use matters in the name of expediting housing approvals.
“I like it when people show up, when they pack the house and there’s speakers, there’s a public hearing and there’s information sessions,” he said.
“I’ve actually kind of found it a bit sad recently when we have six speakers for three minutes and no one comes because there’s just really not that much to engage with other than listening to six random people speak.”
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