Hosting the town hall on community safety in late May ran up a $21,173.36 tab for the City.
The figure has been posted on the City website, complete with a breakdown of how the money was spent.
At $6,890.27, bringing in former mayor of Golden, B.C. Christina Benty to facilitate the event represented the biggest expense, followed by the cost of audio and visual services at $4,944.45. Next highest was graphic design and printing at $3,601.92, then advertising at $3,866 and hall rental at the Civic Centre at $1,970.72.
Staff had been given a little over a month to put together the event and due to the tight timeline, vendors the City works with regularly were chosen to provide the services rather than taking them out to competitive bid, City spokesperson Claire Thwaites said in an email to the Citizen.
Russell Audio-Visual provided the sound and video, KIMBO Design Inc. and Papyrus Printing provided the graphics and printing respectively, Thwaites confirmed. The event was advertised via Meta, The Citizen, Vista Radio and Pattison Media, according to the posting.
In directing staff on April 22 to organize the town hall, council had budgeted $20,000 for the task. Hall rental amounted to an internal transfer between departments,Thwaites noted, which arguably brought the total cost down to slightly less than the limit.
An estimated 200 people attended the evening-long event that was part of a process a council standing committee had been pursuing in answer to concerns surrounding the Moccasin Flats homeless encampment.
How well the town hall went dominated city council's discussion during their June 24 regular meeting prior to passing a series of motions, including one to install new fencing around the encampment at the west end of Fifth Avenue.
Coun. Trudy Klassen said she had a "slight quibble" staff's emphasis on the meeting in their report to council.
"I think we all know that we've been discussing these issues for quite some time and I think that maybe could be written a little bit differently," Klassen said but added that "staff were very heroic in putting together the town hall in a very short period of time."
Coun. Brian Skakun said council needs to take some responsibility for the short timeline staff had been given and suggested the atmosphere was not "real welcoming with the police presence and council sitting up on the stage."
He questioned the focus on Moccasin Flats.
"If we had taken our time, we should've been able to pack that Civic Centre, the whole thing, because there would've been people from Spruceland, College Heights, the Hart Highway because crime and all the things that are going on are happening all over the place," Skakun said.
Coun. Kyle Sampson, who was behind a notice of motion to hold the town hall, acknowledged the tight timeline but contended the town hall was "needed and it needed to be done fast."
"I think this was an absolute win and I think doing it in the time frame that we set out as a council was the right thing to do. It gave our residents a chance to talk to us," Sampson said and added he would like to see council continue holding town halls, "maybe do a few tweaks as we learn."
He said there is still work to do on the issue at hand.
"It's not a problem solved overnight but it definitely a help in the right direction," Sampson said.
Coun. Susan Scott suggested the seating on the floor could have been placed closer to the stage, "and someone, honestly, should have been positioned at the outside doors to invite people to walk around and have a seat - basic hosting - because people who stood and leaned against the wall gave up and left."
Coun. Ron Polillo called the meeting a success and said he was "really impressed" with the comments and the way attendees conducted themselves.
"I know, for a fact, we need to communicate this way more often with our residents because it was successful and we gained a lot of great information and brought back this really thorough and detailed report," Polillo said.
Echoing Polillo, Mayor Simon Yu said town halls could be held on other issues such as economic development.
