ATHABASCA - Larry Armfelt will lead the current edition of Athabasca County council into its last year of a four-year term after his nomination as reeve went uncontested at council’s annual organizational meeting last week.
Councillors met in-person for the first time since the start of the pandemic Oct. 20, at a meeting room at the Athabasca Regional Multiplex, to make physical distancing possible, and Armfelt was once again selected to lead the council into 2021 and towards the next municipal election which is scheduled for Oct. 18, 2021.
Coun. Kevin Haines put the nomination forward, but there were no other nominations and so no need for a vote.
A secret ballot vote for deputy reeve did take place however and Coun. Travais Johnson, nominated by Coun. Penny Stewart, was selected to serve in the position with a 5-4 decision over Coun. Warren Griffin, who was nominated by Haines.
“Thank you, all of you,” Armfelt said to his fellow councillors as he took his place as chair of the meeting.
Councillors made quick work of this year’s meeting, sitting for a little more than 30 minutes, and electing to keep committee appointments — both joint and internal — the same, as well as fire chiefs and fire guardians.
“There has been some discussion and pretty much the flavour of what I’ve heard is that everybody is pretty happy with the situation,” said Armfelt.
Council remuneration was also quickly discussed and rates will remain status quo, with the reeve’s salary set at $61,261.20; the deputy reeve’s salary at $55,875.60; and other councillors earning $50,490 annually. Each also receives $57 per day for meals while attending to council business and are reimbursed for mileage outside of county boundaries at $0.58 per kilometre.
The most discussion took place around increasing per diems for members at large from $150 to $200, as some pointed out how difficult it was to attract members of the public to serve on certain committees, particularly the assessment review board and subdivision and development appeal board.
Coun. Dennis Willcott recommended increasing the rate for these members at large to help attract more interest. Coun. Christy Bilsky requested a recorded vote.
Willcott’s motion to increase the per diem to $200 passed 6-3.
“You don’t want to raise rates, but honestly we’re having trouble getting people to participate, and there is very little incentive for someone to get involved besides having pride in their community and wanting to be involved,” said Coun. Griffin.
“Unless administration can figure out another way to incentivize the public to become involved in these committees as members at large, I don’t know how else you can get them besides rewarding those who do and hopefully word of mouth gets out and more people want to get involved.”
