October 5 Council Meeting: Sidewalk patios for restaurants, proclamations, and deputy mayor appointments

Monday night’s Langley City council meeting was a lighter agenda. Council gave final reading to repeal our Chauffeur Permit and Regulation Bylaw and update the Municipal Ticket Information System Bylaw accordingly. You can read more about why the bylaw was repeal in a previous post.

A proclamation is an old tyme was for mayor or council to have a day in recognition to show symbolic support for a group, cause, or organization. For example, a council could declare a day, “Water Appreciation Day.” These proclamations have little meaningful impact. As a result, this is something that Langley City council has not done. Council formally adopted a policy on Monday night to include requests for proclamations in the “Correspondence” section of council agendas, but not actually do proclamations.

Mayor and council show meaningful support for non-profit organizations in our community by offering community grants, raising non-profit flags (on-request) during specific time periods, and providing letters of support for non-profits seeking grant funding from third parties.

Council appointed the rotation deputy mayor position for 2020/2021 as follows:
Nov.1 – Dec 31, 2020 - Councillor Pachal
Jan.1 – Feb 28, 2021 - Councillor Albrecht
Mar.1 – Apr 30, 2021 - Councillor Martin
May 1 - June 30, 2021 - Councillor Wallace
July 1 – Aug 31, 2021 - Councillor Storteboom
Sept 1 – Oct 31, 2021 - Councillor James

The deputy mayor takes over the mayor’s responsibilities if she is unavailable.

One of the things that council has received frequent correspondence about during the COVID-19 pandemic is for the City to support sidewalk patios for restaurants. This is interesting because the City already provides free permits for restaurants that want to extend their patios onto sidewalks. This has been in place even before the COVID-19 pandemic. The City has produced a “Guide to Outdoor Dining on Sidewalks” to help restaurants in our community apply for this free permit.

Finally, council received a report from staff on the legal costs due to a complaint against the City from an individual to the BC Human Rights Tribunal. The complaint was dismissed by the Tribunal. The City’s legal costs to defend against the complaint was $62,058.05.