Council Update

It’s been a while since our last update.  There have been several council meetings since then. Rather than provide a chronology of decisions, this email will highlight key decisions.

Council Appoints new CAO

On October 1^st, Council appointed Reegan McCullough as its new Chief Administrative Officer (CAO).  McCullough comes to Rocky View from Sturgeon County where he had been their CAO for six years.  From what we can determine, he left Sturgeon County on good terms and with high praise from its mayor.  We hope he will provide solid guidance and direction for the County.

As you may remember, the previous CAO, Dorian Wandzura, was terminated in a 4-3 decision in August, 2023, while council was on its summer break.  Since then, the position was backfilled by Executive Director Byron Riemann and Interim CAO Rick McDonald.

McDonald returned as Interim CAO in October 2023, having earlier served in that role between CAOs Hoggan and Wandzura.  McDonald left in May this year.  It isn’t clear why he left before Council secured a full-time replacement.  It is also not clear why it took council so long to find a replacement.  From our perspective, council has lacked clear direction and initiative since Wandzura’s departure.  There have also been some questionable decisions made by the council majority.  These may make McDonald’s early departure somewhat more understandable. 

As a recent Rocky View Weekly article noted, McCullough is the County’s sixth CAO in five years.  While no one will dispute that change is needed in Rocky View, we were somewhat surprised at the speed with which McCullough is making changes.  The face of Rocky View’s administration will be quite different going forward since he has terminated two of the three Executive Directors and the Municipal Clerk.  

Organizational Meeting

Council held its annual organization meeting on October 15th.  Councillors Crystal Kissel and Don Kochan were reappointed as Reeve and Deputy Reeve, respectively.

Members at-large on the various committees were also appointed.  Bob Doherty and Moire Dunn were reappointed to the Subdivision and Development Appeal Board, along with newly appointed member Beverly Copithorne.  Copithorne was also reappointed to the Family and Community Support Services Board with J.S. Ryu and newly appointed member Blaine Townsend. Trevor Birchall was reappointed to the Agricultural Service Board, along with Travis Eklund. The Assessment Review Board received newly appointed member Justin St. Louis, and the Marigold Library representative is now Laura Chitwood. 

Policy Review Committee reinstated

The possibility of re-establishing this informal council committee was raised when the Governance Committee discussed the update on council policies in June.  That update made it clear that, since the earlier policy review committee was abolished in 2019, reviews of council’s policies have stalled badly.  As part of that discussion, Wright suggested bringing back the committee.  She indicated that she felt it was productive to have councillors involved in the development and redesign of council’s policies.  From observing council’s discussions of several council policies over recent months, staff clearly could benefit from council’s input before expecting council to review and approve revised policies that none of them have seen before as part of a busy council meeting.

At that June Governance Committee, both Kissel and Boehlke spoke highly of the previous committee.  Boehlke indicated that current policies were becoming incredibly long and he would like to see them shortened as had been done in his earlier years on council.  Kissel stated that she thought the previous policy review committee had worked well, although she also indicated that, as part of that committee, she felt she had not added to its success.

In July, when Wright and Kochan brought forward a motion to re-establish the committee, it was supported unanimously.  However, at council’s October 8^th meeting, when council considered terms of reference for the new committee they were only approved in a 4-2 vote, with Kissel and Boehlke voting in opposition. 

While everyone is free to change their minds, we don’t understand why Kissel then accepted a nomination to sit on the committee at the organization meeting.  There was no need for her to be appointed to the committee since, as Reeve, she is an ex officio member of all council committees and could simply attend the meetings if she wanted to do so.  Instead, by accepting the nomination, she effectively pushed Councillor Hanson off the committee since there were four nominations for the three committee positions.  As it stands, the committee is composed of Kissel, Kochan and Wright.

Other Highlights from Council’s September & October meetings

Aggregate Resource Plan

We were disappointed in July when the council majority decided not to move forward quickly to implement the Stakeholder Advisory Committee’s consensus recommendations on the Aggregate Resource Plan even though Admin indicated they could do so.  Those recommendations, agreed to by both industry and resident representatives on the Committee, will substantially improve the County’s oversight of gravel operations in Rocky View.

Fortunately for residents, for Council’s October 8^th meeting, Admin brought forward a workplan that will have more than just the consensus recommendations ready for council’s approval in early 2025.  This time around, Kissel voted alongside Samra, Wright and Hanson to support Admin’s proposed workplan.

Petro Canada Relocation Application Denied

At a special council meeting on September 25^th, council voted unanimously to refuse Suncor’s application that would have relocated its Petro Canada gas station / truck stop from the interchange at Highways 1 & 22 to Range Road 33 and Township Road 250.  It was encouraging to see that all councillors realized that the proposed location beside a school and in North Springbank’s country residential community was not an appropriate location for a busy 24/7 truck stop.

Springbank ASP

At the end of the October 2^nd public hearing on the long-awaited Springbank ASP, council referred the ASP back to Administration to compile amendments, some identified by Admin and others proposed by councillors.  These amendments will be the focus of a new public hearing scheduled for December 11^th.  Admin has committed to posting the amendments on the Springbank ASP webpage before the public hearing.

Bearspaw ASP

The public hearing for the Bearspaw ASP is not expected until January.  In the interim, Admin released a revised draft of the ASP, which can be found on the Bearspaw ASP webpage. From the feedback we have received, residents have concerns with the increased amount of land proposed for commercial development at the Bearspaw Rd / Hwy 1A intersection, as well as the lack of clear direction for the future policy area.