Council meetings at Humboldt City Hall could go later in the night, as council prepares to enter a trial run with one longer meeting instead of two shorter ones per month. (Facebook/City of Humboldt Municipal Government)

By Aaron Schulze

Fewer Meetings, Fewer Problems?

Humboldt Council to cut meetings, expand agendas during trial run

Sep 5, 2019 | 5:15 PM

The City of Humboldt is testing to see if its current procedure of holding council meetings is the most efficient.

Humboldt councillors agreed on city staff’s recommendation to cut back on council meetings for a three-month trial run from September to November. The city’s council meetings on Sept. 9, Oct. 15, and Nov. 12 have been cancelled as part of the trial.

Mayor Rob Muench said the City of Humboldt has made adjustments to its council meetings throughout the summer with its new executive committee structuring.

“We found the council meetings have had very short agendas over the last number of months,” Muench said. “[Council] thought it would be more efficient, through the recommendation from staff, to try going to one council and executive meeting per month, on a temporary basis. There are a lot of cities in the province doing that. The thought behind it is to have a longer meeting instead of two shorter meetings.”

If the City of Humboldt would want to permanently adjust its council meeting schedule, Muench said council would need to vote on whether or not to approve changes to the city’s policies and procedures.

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“As a trial we can do it month by month and see how it works out,” he said. “If we find that it’s not working, we’ll certainly go back to where we were before. If it works efficiently, then we’ll keep going this way.”

Muench doesn’t foresee any concerns in terms of pacing throughout Humboldt’s council meetings during the trial run, even with longer items on the agenda such as deciding on discretionary use for a crematorium.

In case of an extraordinary item pops up, Humboldt council can call for a special meeting to address it.

Humboldt’s next council meeting will take place on Monday, Sept. 23.

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aaron.schulze@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @SchulzePANow