Whereas Administration will be presenting a revised Essex County Procedure By-law for County Council's consideration at the December 6, 2023, County Council Meeting;
And whereas County Council does not yet know the extent of the revisions that will be proposed in the revised By-law;
And Whereas Section 10.1 of the existing By-law provides that the Agenda and supporting documents will be made available "to members of Council in the calendar week prior to that in which the meeting falls" and such agenda is usually distributed on the Friday of that week;
And Whereas Section 10.3 provides that agendas and supporting material will be "posted on the County's website on the Monday preceding the meeting" unless the Monday is a holiday, at which point the material is published on the Tuesday;
And Whereas these publishing dates do not provide enough time for members of County Council, nor members of the public, to review the agenda material;
Accordingly, it is moved that, Section 10.1 of the Procedure By-law be amended to provide that the agenda, including supporting documents, be made available to members of council at least seven (7) days prior to the meeting;
That Section 10.3 be amended to provide that the agenda, with supporting documents, be posted on the County of Essex's website at least six (6) days prior to the meeting, as amended;
That, should an urgent matter requiring the immediate attention of Council arise following the publishing of the Agenda, but prior to the date of the Council meeting, that the Clerk be given the discretion to prepare an Addendum Agenda and distribute it to Council and publish it to the website at least three (3) days prior to the meeting;
And that the changes to Section 10.1 and 10.3 take effective for January 2024. (Voted electronically)