City of Cornwall Council Meeting Notes – January 25, 2021

Full Agenda and supporting documents: https://pub-cornwall.escribemeetings.com/FileStream.ashx?DocumentId=4070

Re-watch the meeting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRlFUeql9mc

City Council discussed a motion to have Department Heads of Administration report to Council on operating budgets along with their presentations on capital budgets. After some discussion, the motion was defeated.

Council approved the following under Consent Items:

•        Proclamation of Black History Month for the month of February 2021.
•       Proclamation of Mentoring Month for January 2021.
•        RFP 20-P10 Design and Construction Administration Servies for the Municipal Works and Infrastructure Administration and Garage / Multi-use buildings.

Budget Presentations

• Council discussed a motion requesting Department Heads to provide a presentation on Operating Budgets in detail to Council during Budget Deliberations with their Capital presentation.
• Councilor Grant stated that the City Administration presents Quarterly Reports, which would allow Council to ask questions at that time.
• Councilor Towndale stated that he would like to see the Operating Budget be discussed to allow the Council ample time to ask questions and get more information from staff on any operating budget changes. He supported the motion.
• Councilor Hebert did not support the motion. She noted that the operating budget is made public ahead of time, so if the Council or public wants to make comments, they have time to do so.
• Councilor McDonald noted that Administration is available to provide information to Council, so there is no need for Department Heads to present on the operating budget and believes this is a form of micro-managing of the Administration. She did not support the motion.
• Councilor Gardiner and Councilor MacIntosh agree with Councilor Hebert and McDonald that this is a micro-managing of Administration, and they did not support this motion.
• Councilor Hollingsworth believes that Budget Deliberations is the most important job of the Council. Therefore, it deserves the time to go through it thoroughly.  He supported the motion.
• Councilor Dupelle and Bennett agree that being more detailed is essential, and asking the right questions comes from open discussions. They supported the motion.  
• Councilor Bergeron brought this motion to Council. He believes that it is their duty as Councilors to ask for details about Capital Budgets and Operating Budgets. It is these discussions that questions that need to be asked regarding budgets are raised.
• Mayor Bernadette believes that the work is there in the budget book that is provided to Council. Instead of asking questions, she believes that Council should bring forth ideas and projects that could be considered into the budget. She did not support the motion.
• After much discussion, the motion was defeated by one vote.

Fourth Quarter Non-Competitive Procurement Report 2020-2021.

• This project was awarded to Watson & Associates Economists Ltd. as they have completed previous steps to collect this information.

The following By-laws were approved:

1.       By-law 2021-009 Appointment of Lay Members to various Boards, Commissions and Committee (Senior Friendly Community Committee), 2021-09-Corporate Services 34
2.       By-law 2021-010 Medical Recruitment Financial Assistance Agreement – Dr. Yu, 2021-18-Planning, Development and Recreation, 2021-17-Planning, Development and Recreation 37
3.   By-law 2021-011 Annual Renewal of Service Contracts for Early Years Service Providers 2021, 2021-13-Social and Housing Services, 2021-09-Social and Housing Services

Council received Unfinished Business Listing for January 2021

Council moved into a closed session.

The next regular meeting will be held on February 08, 2021. 

				Prepared By: Shannon Tierney Executive Assistant Cornwall And Area Chamber of Commerce tierney@cornwallchamber.com