The Regional District of Central Kootenay is moving ahead with a new bylaw that would allow staff to make more routine decisions without bringing every matter before the board.
The proposed delegation of authority bylaw received first and second reading Thursday and will now go through a three-week comment period before returning to the board.
The bylaw is intended to clarify which decisions staff can make and which must remain with elected officials. It would cover areas including procurement, contracts, grant agreements, land-related documents and other operational matters.
The proposed rules also include limits on staff authority, including dollar thresholds and additional approval requirements for higher-value or higher-risk transactions.
Area H Director Walter Popoff supported the move.
“I believe it’s long time in coming. It’s about time we had a delegation of authority bylaw,” he said.
However, Popoff said directors need to clearly understand which decisions should be handled by staff and which should remain the responsibility of the board.
“I would support giving it first and second read, but I’d like to have a further clause that we have a workshop with a subject matter expert,” he said.
He said the workshop could help directors better understand “what would be appropriate to delegate to staff for efficiency purposes, and what would be more or less the responsibility of directors.”
Corporate Officer Mike Morrison said the bylaw would also help prevent relatively routine matters from being unnecessarily escalated to the board.
“Part of the inefficiency that comes from not having a delegated authority by-law is that we escalate things, fairly routine things, but that still, you know, have some risk implications,” he said.
Morrison used third-party indemnification agreements as an example, saying some matters are better handled by staff rather than the board.
“Things like indemnification of third parties that, you know, in terms of business outcomes, are better dealt with by staff than the board, and that’s sort of what we’re trying to achieve here,” he said.
The bylaw will now enter a three-week comment period, allowing directors to submit feedback and request changes before it returns to the board, potentially in September.
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