Adam Prudhomme
Beaver Staff
Greater Napanee council will be keeping its familiar 7 p.m. start time for the foreseeable future.
Councillor John McCormack had made a notice of motion suggesting that council move the start time for one council session a month up to 4 p.m. He later withdrew the motion for the time being once the motion received little support from the rest of council.
“I have a conflict in that if I’m not at work I have to pay someone else a four hour shift to be there,” said councillor Ellen Johnson. “It’s a burden on me.”
“I can’t support this motion due to my time constraints as well,” added councillor Dave Pinnell Jr. “In my profession things run late quite a bit.”
Deputy mayor Max Kaiser said he’d be unwilling to support the year round motion, but would at least be open to discussing the possibility of an early start during the months of January, February and March.
Mayor Marg Isbester noted that if the town were to start streaming their meetings online, it would make a little more sense to entertain the idea. As it stands now, she says a 4 p.m. start would be too difficult for a lot of residents to get the time off work should they wish to address council or attend a meeting.
McCormack agreed and withdrew the motion, keeping alive the possibility that it could be brought back at a later date.