November is budget month, so maybe it shouldn’t be that surprising that it’s going to be a little bit light in terms of the Committee of the Whole agenda. The agenda is all about the Governance Committee as members of the committee will be asked to look at council education, and the organization of the menagerie of advisory committees at the City. Naturally, there are also a lot of staff recognitions too!
NOTE #1: Delegates will be able to appear at this meeting in-person or via tele-presense but you do have to register with the clerks office before 10 am on Friday November 3. You can also submit written delegations and correspondences for agenda items.
NOTE #2: In addition to meeting in-person, this meeting will also be live-streamed on the City of Guelph’s website here.
NOTE #3: This is the first to two council meeting scheduled for Monday November 6. A special meeting of council will take place at 6:30 pm.
STAFF RECOGNITIONS:
1) Tara Baker, General Manager of Finance/City Treasurer, received the 2023 Municipal Finance Officers’ Association Leadership Award.
2) The City of Guelph Waterworks Engine House/Pumping Station won the 2022 Canadian Water Landmark award from the American Water Works Association.
3) Shelley Zhu, Program Manager of Wastewater has now been certified as a Project Management Professional (PMP) from the Project Management Institute.
4) Chief Administrative Officer Scott Stewart; DCAOs Jayne Holmes, Trevor Lee, and Colleen Clack-Bush; GM Of Infrastructure, Development and Enterprise, Facilities and Energy Management Antti Vikko; Manager of Corporate Energy and Climate Change Bryan Ho-Yan; and Program Manager of Corporate Energy and Climate Change Tijo Joseph have collectively received the Corporate-wide ISO 50001 Energy Management Systems Certificate.
Staff Report: Mayor and Council Expense and Education Policy Update – You may know that Guelph city councillors and the mayor sometimes go to conferences like the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) and their expenses are covered by the City of Guelph. These are considered professional development activities that add to the knowledge and expertise of councillors, but one of the things that’s been missing from this policy is a consideration for more formal settings like education programs offered through universities, colleges or government organizations. This update will fix this.
Redesigning Advisory Committees of Council: A Governance Framework – Working with the Guelph Lab at the University of Guelph, the City Clerks office has been looking at ways to improve the City’s ACOCs, which covers a wide variety of groups who inform the work of council from the Transit Advisory Committee to the Art Gallery of Guelph board to the Guelph Cemetery Commission. This report marks the end of the first phase of the project, which will now move on to phase two with an expected completion date in the fourth quarter of next year.
The phase one report outlines seven key commitments for any ACOC including how it shapes the Strategic Plan, offers lived and professional expertise, have adequate resources, represent diverse identities and perspectives, and have clear communications to and from city council. It also outlines the determinations for creating and operating ACOCs, developing those committees, and evaluating their effectiveness. This framework will be applied to the current ACOCs and the findings will be shared in the follow-up report.
Guelph Politico 