New city council settled in and ready to get to work

By Lethbridge Herald on November 1, 2021.

Herald photo by Al Beeber - New Lethbridge mayor Blaine Hyggen and first-time councillor Jenn Schmidt-Rempel listen to the proceedings during a public organizational meeting of the new council Monday at City Hall.

Al Beeber – Lethbridge Herald

Lethbridge’s newly elected city council moved up its first official meeting by a day during a brief organizational meeting Monday at City Hall.

Originally scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 16, Mayor Blaine Hyggen and council will now meet a day earlier on Nov. 15 so the elected officials can travel to Edmonton for the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association Conference.

Council also voted to adopt the 2022 Council and Standing Policy Committee meeting schedule, confirm appointments to boards, committees and commissions and approve the 2021-25 schedule for deputy mayor and acting mayor.

Councillor Rajko Dodic was chosen as the first acting mayor and Belinda Crowson deputy mayor. The schedule was made in accordance with direction from the previous council at its Aug. 24 meeting. Dodic, as the councillor with the most votes in last month’s election, was named acting mayor first. The councillor with the second most votes will get that position next following down the line.

The main role of acting and deputy mayors is to fill in for Hyggen when he isn’t available or they’re called upon him to support mayoral functions.

At Monday’s meeting, council also voted to dissolve three committees including the Community Design committee, Ambulance Transition Oversight Committee and the Task Force on Crime Reduction.

Different reasons were given for the dissolution of the boards by City Clerk Bonnie Hilford.

Hilford said the design committee was dissolved because “it has not met in the last 10 months, especially since the standing policy committees were put into place. So the business that usually goes to community design has now gone to the civic works committee, standing policy committee,” she said.

The ambulance transition “has not met in three years so it’s mandate has been met” and the task force on crime reduction was established but no members were appointed, Hilford said. Mayor Hyggen said its work will go through a different committee.

On an annual basis, council does an organizational meeting to decide what members of council will sit on committees, commissions and boards. These are one-year opportunities, said councillor Ryan Parker.

This gives members of council an opportunity to get a little more knowledgeable in that area, he said, thanking them for doing their due diligence by finding committees that work with their scheduling as well their interests. Parker expressed hopes they’ll learn a lot as well while serving on their respective boards.

Administration members were also appointed to committees to provide expertise while promoting collaboration and collective-decision making with council and the public to ensure everyone is better served.

Named to one-year terms starting Jan. 1, 2022 were Travis Grindle to the Combative Sports Commission, Lloyd Brierley to the Regional Trail Steering Committee and Doug Kaupp to the Oldman Watershed Council.

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