It’s been a very consequential seven months of council. Meeting after meeting, the mayor and our 12 city councillors have had to dispatch some big issues, make some big decisions, and find some out of the box solutions at times. So given the stakes so far in 2024, perhaps it’s okay if council had a nice, quick and easy last meeting before the usual August summer vacation. Here’s the (brief) recap…
Regular Meeting of City Council – July 23
The waiting was the longest part when it came to the last meeting of the summer as once again, most of the action happened behind the closed meeting doors.
With Mayor Cam Guthrie at the airport, it fell to Councillor Dominique O’Rourke to chair the meeting and gavel us out to summer vacation, but first there was that two-hour in-camera session. Council received information about the Solid Waste Scales Project Contract Settlement, DCs for a Habitat for Humanity project, and the Ontario Land Tribunal appeal about the development at the Lafarge site. O’Rourke also announced that council gave direction to staff to finalize a new deal with the workers at the River Run Centre represented by the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE).
Council took a half-hour break before starting the open potion of the agenda, which ending up being about five-times longer than the total length of the meeting itself. The only other business on the agenda was the ratification of reports received at Committee of the Whole: The Heritage Minimum Property Standards, the Not for Profit Facility Lease Renewals, the Light Pollution Bylaw Review, the Lobbyist Registry Bylaw, and the call on the Ontario government to make administrative changes to the Municipal Act. All this was passed swiftly, smoothly and unanimously.
And that was a wrap for council business until September! O’Rourke wished everyone a happy summer vacation.
Click here to see the complete recap of the meeting.
Guelph Politico 