Brighton Council is considering how to better include its rural residents in decision-making processes.
The municipality’s Rural Advisory Committee reviewed feedback from the rural resident survey and recommended that council consider hosting a town hall meeting to provide residents an open forum to voice concerns.
A staff report presented at this week’s council meeting, however, recommended against such a meeting as this kind of an event could create unrealistic expectations, limit council’s ability to properly consider matters and result in discussions that should be addressed through formal council reports.
Staff suggested that if council does choose to proceed with a town hall meeting it would be an informal, information-gathering exercise only and would not replace existing procedural processes, or would it be a forum for council decision-making.
Still, Mayor Brian Ostrander says they feel it’s important to do something as they recognize that rural residents are feeling a bit divorced from the urban area.
“There’s the feeling that all the attention and all the investment goes into the downtown area. We want to make sure that whatever we’re doing is informational, so that folks do understand that when we provide investment, we provide it for the whole of the community and the work that’s going on in the rural area as well.“
He says they want to make sure that they include all hamlets and rural areas.
The matter was deferred to the next meeting for council to create a motion to provide direction to staff to move forward with some sort of town hall plan.
