Several dozen people attended a town hall style council meeting Wednesday night (May 23) at Ballenas Secondary School as part of council’s efforts to engage the community.
“I think it was very successful,” said mayor Chris Burger.
“The format allows a lot more to and fro during the actual deliberations,” he said, pointing out that the public is always given a chance to speak, but it is mostly at the end of the meeting and only allows questions from the audience and not a lot of consultation and questions back and forth with council.
The different meeting format was also held to mark Local Government Awareness Week, May 20-26.
The agenda was intentionally light, allowing more time on each issue and much of the gallery was clearly there about the possibility of allowing people to keep egg laying chickens in the city.
Council has held several meetings at Knox United Church, Craig Bay and Ballenas in the past few years, which usually follows a less formal format.
Burger said that while nothing has been scheduled or discussed, he’s pretty sure council agrees it was a valuable move they will likely do again in the future.
For more on council check the city website at www.parksville.ca.