Council has opted for the status quo when it comes to the Community Partnership Fund Committee.
Earlier this year, Ward Six Councillor Karen Kirkwood-Whyte asked to involve members of the community in the process, but Councillor Joe Faas says any further changes to the process could cause problems.
“The existing process has worked well all along, never heard any complaints about it not being transparent, people being upset because they weren’t chosen for their grant, they accepted that the process was working well,” Faas says. “I think you get political influence in there, it can muddy the water. If it’s not broke, why fix it?”
Faas voted against Kirkwood-Whyte’s preference of creating a Committee of Council which would potentially involve councillors in the process.
Instead, the committee will be administrative in nature, and council would only be involved in the final approval for the allocation of funding.