The County of Stettler council appointed two people to an important municipal board after private deliberations at the Dec. 10 regular meeting of council.

As part of their closed session agenda, councillors discussed “Evaluation of the Agricultural Service Board Member(s)-at-Large Applications,” which the agenda noted was placed in the private session of council according to Access to Information Act (ATIA) Section 22: Confidential evaluations.

After councillors left the closed session and re-opened the public meeting Coun. James Nibourg asked that a tabled motion from a previous council meeting be retrieved; staff noted the motion in question was to appoint Harry Burke as a member-at-large to the Agriculture Service Board (ASB). Councillors unanimously approved the appointment.

The second resolution councillors considered after leaving their closed session was the appointment of Lance Nelson to the ASB as a member-at-large.

Before the vote, however, Reeve Larry Clarke made a few comments about the process of considering applicants for the ASB member-at-large seats. “We had some wonderful applicants and hopefully as we open applications up in future years we have the same degree of difficulty in picking people because it was a very difficult pick,” said the reeve. “Everybody had great qualifications they could bring to the table.” Councillors unanimously approved a motion to appoint Nelson to the ASB.

Readers should note in the past the County of Stettler ASB was made up exclusively of members of county council.

The Municipal Government Act (MGA) gives municipal councils authority to move into “closed session” to discuss certain matters; generally councils are to list on their approved agenda the topics they’re discussing in closed session and which section of ATIA permits that discussion. Traditionally, closed session topics included things like staff discipline, lawsuits and personal financial information.

Also, the MGA prohibits votes in closed session; while the discussion around certain topics can be private, any resolutions council makes must be performed in the open meeting.

The County of Stettler council had a substantial closed session Dec. 10 with seven items on the original pre-circulated agenda; the closed session began at about 4 hours and 15 minutes into the council meeting and ended at about 6 hours and 44 minutes into the meeting.

After the roughly two and a half hour session, only one topic had a vote held, the ASB positions denoted above.

The first closed session item listed on the agenda was Land and Property Rights Tribunal (LPRT) proceedings (ATIA Section 23: Disclosure harmful to law enforcement and ATIA Section 32: Privileged information).

The second item was Update on Stop Work Order (ATIA Section 28: Local public body confidences).

The third item was simply titled “Draft Agreement” on the agenda (ATIA Section 28: Local public body confidences and ATIA Section 30: Disclosure harmful to economic and other interests of a public body).

The fourth item in closed session was Enforcement Order Update (ATIA Section 23: Disclosure harmful to law enforcement).

The fifth item was Stop Order Update (ATIA Section 23: Disclosure harmful to law enforcement and ATIA Section 32: Privileged information).

The last item listed on the pre-circulated agenda closed session was Evaluation of the Recreation Special Project Funding Applications (ATIA Section 22: Confidential evaluations).