Lethbridge City Hall. (Lethbridge News Now)

By David Opinko

Motion to postpone future Lethbridge City Council meetings defeated

Mar 16, 2020 | 4:44 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – Lethbridge City Council will continue to meet.

A special meeting of council was held on Monday, where Councillor Jeff Carlson introduced a motion that would see them no longer meet in person in the interim.

“Be it resolved that City Council postpone indefinitely all future public meetings of City Council, Community Issues Committee, Finance Committee, and Public Hearings.”

He believed this would be the best course of action given the COVID-19 pandemic and measures being taken by the local, provincial, and federal governments to limit its spread.

After the city council meeting ended, it was announced by the provincial government that there is one confirmed case of COVID-19 in the Alberta Health Service South Zone.

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Carlson said it is a great thing that, as of the time of his comments prior to this announcement, there were no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Lethbridge, but council needs to be proactive to ensure that this remains the case.

Mayor Chris Spearman, however, replied that they were elected to be leaders, and therefore, need to be there to make decisions that will impact the community.

Councillor Belinda Crowson added that the COVID-19 situation needs to be monitored constantly and for them to see how it progresses before they make any such decisions.

In the end, council voted 7-2 against the motion, meaning it was defeated and that council meetings will continue at their normal schedule. Councillors Carlson and Joe Mauro voted for postponement.

Crowson then introduced a motion of her own. It would give the Agenda Review Committee the ability to ensure council agendas only include “essential” items, while non-priority matters would be deferred.

While Spearman says that there is no exact definition of what “essential” means, it would generally include decisions where public money would be spent or a decision would need to be made immediately.

This motion was passed 7-2 with Councillors Mauro and Blaine Hyggen voting against it.

A third and final motion was then made by Carlson. This would permit electronic voting for each of city council’s boards, commissions, and committees.

He brought this forward out of concerns that if these groups were not able to meet in person, they would still be able to make important decisions.

This motion passed 6-3 with Mayor Spearman and Councillors Mauro and Hyggen being opposed.