Multiple civic committee meetings as well as two council meetings will take place at St. Albert city hall this week, with some major projects on the meeting agendas
St. Albert city council's standing committee of the whole (SCOW) has a busy agenda for the Tuesday, Feb. 14 meeting, including an update from administration on the development of the West Area Structure Plan (ASP). A council backgrounder included in the agenda package states that a first reading of the West ASP is scheduled for a council meeting in quarter two of 2023, which is between April and June.
Also on the agenda for the Feb. 14 SCOW meeting is a presentation from administration on a draft of the municipal naming policy. A first draft of the naming policy was released on the city's YouTube channel in December, and multiple councillors told The Gazette at the time that they had questions about certain aspects of the policy, and were concerned that a draft was released before being presented to council.
The Gazette will have an article dedicated to council's discussion of the draft naming policy in the Thursday, Feb. 16 edition of the newspaper.
Immediately following the SCOW meeting on Feb. 14 is a special city council meeting to discuss and determine how the city's estimated 2022 surplus of $2.3 million will be handled.
Last December The Gazette reported that the city was estimating the yearly surplus to be around $300,000 based on the third quarter financial report, but the fourth quarter report being presented to council on Feb. 14 states the estimated $2 million surplus increase stems largely from the city coming in $7.5 million below the operating budget for the year.
A council backgrounder included in the special city council meeting agenda package states that city administration is recommending the surplus, once it's finalized in April, be transferred to the city's municipal land and facilities reserve, which is used largely to aid the purchase and development of city-owned land.
The Gazette will have an article dedicated in the Feb. 16 edition of the newspaper to the 2022 surplus and how council votes to use it.
St. Albert's citizen-represented policing committee will also be meeting on Feb. 14, and the agenda states the committee will receive reports from the St. Albert RCMP, council, city administration, and the committee's public complaints director.
The final meeting taking place at St. Albert city hall this week is the Senior's Advisory Committee, which, according to the meeting agenda, plans to discuss what the committee would like their mandate to be as council is set to discuss the committee's future later this year.
