The Town of Athabasca’s council will wait until Sept. 15 to talk further about the recommendations that came out of the municipal inspection report.
At council’s Sept. 5 meeting, after defeating Mayor Roger Morrill’s motion to hire a consulting firm to help deal with the report’s 29 recommendations, council voted to address them through a special meeting.
Coun. Tim Verhaeghe and Morrill voted in favour of hiring a consulting firm, while Councillors Shelly Gurba, Joanne Peckham and Tanu Evans voted against it. Coun. Steve Schafer did not attend the meeting.
The report, released Aug. 28 at a special council meeting held in the Athabasca Regional Multiplex, listed 29 recommendations that town council has to address by Oct. 12.
Gurba pointed out council must present a plan of attack to Municipal Affairs Minister Shaye Anderson.
“My biggest concern right now is we only have about 30 days left to do anything with this. I really think that if we call a special meeting we can at least sit down and go over some of the ones that we know we can tackle quite easily.”
Evans said the council should evaluate the 2013 municipal corporate review, advise the new council and “gracefully exit.”
“I question the decision to hire outside help before this town council has actually sat down as a group and examined the recommendations in detail as a cohesive group – something that’s identified in the report as a shortcoming of this town council,” Evans said.
Morrill said that time is of the essence and council should show action.
“I don’t quite see it that way. I see that leadership could be defined as doing something about this as soon as possible … absolutely we have to sit down. That’s a given. And go through this.”
Chief administrative officer Robert Jorgensen recommended council arrange a special meeting to go through the report and report to the minister on how they intend to proceed.
Evans made a motion to direct administration and Morrill to arrange a special meeting for all of council to discuss the recommendations within the municipal inspection, which was supported unanimously.
The meeting is set to be held Sept. 15 at 4 p.m. in town council chambers.
