LOCAL NEWS COUNCIL TO CONSIDER AXING STANDING COMMITTEES

MICHAEL POTESTIO STAFF REPORTER michael@kamloopsthisweek.com

City staff are recommending the five standing committees of council be dissolved following a review process sparked by changes made to the groups by Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson.

At the direction of its governance select committee, council asked staff to draft a new approach for utilizing standing and/or select committees based on current operational needs. Staff were also asked to recommend whether to reinstate or dissolve any of the current five standing committees.

Staff have suggested disbanding all five standing committees — civic operations, community relations and reconciliation, community and protective services, development and sustainability and finance — and any tasks they were in the middle of be reassigned to either an appropriate select committee or council’s committee of the whole.

Staff are also suggesting the city’s community engagement groups reassign their reporting to either a select committee or committee of the whole.

The proposal came before council at its July 11meeting, to consider the reinstatement or dissolution of the five standing committees.

During the select governance committee review process, staff drafted the outline of a hybrid structure for implementing both standing and select committees based on the needs of each city department, but did not specify which types of committees would apply to each respective department.

In the staff report that went to council on Tuesday, deputy corporate officer Amanda Passmore stated staff envision the select committees created this year, following the suspension of standing committees, will continue, and any new select and standing committees will be formed as deemed appropriate by council for conducting city business.

While standing committees were paused, council struck four select committees — community policing, reconciliation, service agreement renewals and, most recently, the Build Kamloops select committee.

Council has jurisdiction over establishing select committees and appointing members, as long as each select committee includes at least one member of council.

The Community Charter grants a mayor the authority to establish the standing committees and their broad mandates, and appoint and remove its members. Standing committees, however, have to consist of 50 per cent council members, who also are not obligated to participate.

Standing committees without council participation would be required to fold.

There were no select committees, which have a narrower scope than standing, during the previous council term.

See vote results online at kamloopsthisweek.com

How old is Fulton?

Old! Did you know that we had one of the first telephones in Kamloops? From 1886 – 1956, you would just dial “6” to reach our firm.

Our telephone number is longer now, and this year we gratefully mark 138 years of service to our community. If you have questions, we’re here to help Contact 250.372.5542 or law@fultonco com

JESSICA VLIEGENTHART

How Much Risk Should You Take?

Years ago, be fore kids , I was a bachelor travelling in New Zealand, known as the bir thplace of bungee jumping. I signed up for the “ Thrillogy ” which include 3 bungee jump s at three ver y di fferent locations . It was incredibl y ner ve racking e spec iall y when I couldn’ t help bu t think at some point human error could occur. Needle s s to say, I am not sure I would do this again perhap s age and or having a famil y limit s my risk appetite. I make this analogy to demonstrate that people’s appetite for risk often change s over their li fetime Broadl y speaking , inve stor risk s can be split bet ween t wo cate gorie s :

1 Capacit y : this is the le vel of risk you are capable of taking This is mathematical and measured by standard de viation more commonl y known as volatilit y. For ex ample , i f you are debt free , no kids and have $1,000,000 you can afford to take more risk than a famil y of four with little saved and many expense s ahead.

2 . Tolerance : this is the le vel of risk you want or are willing to take Also known as Risk Appetite , which is based on your feelings and emotional stre s se s you can manage with re spec t to inve sting

One of my favourite analogie s is to envision por tfolio volatilit y like turbulence on an airplane. Which of the se t wo options would you cho se when f l ying from Vancouver to Hawaii ?

• You f l y to Maui in 6 hours and sleep easy on the plane.

• You get to Maui in 4 hours bu t " white knuckled " with ex treme turbulence

O ften, there are mismatche s bet ween Capacit y and Tolerance Some inve stors will be too conser vative and not keep up with the co st of living (inf lation) On the other hand, taking on too much risk can jeopardize a worr y-free retirement

Ty picall y, some sor t of discover y tool will be used to e stimate your comfor t The easie st que stion to ask yoursel f is what is the max imum " turbulence” you could tolerate? For ex ample , an inve stor with $500,000 might say I feel I can handle a max imum decrease of 10% or $50,000 over any 12-month period From here , a diversi f ied por tfolio can be personall y built to your comfor t .

Another ke y point is that retiree s tend to worr y more abou t their f inance s than younger people A s such, we must be aware of potential change s in li fe st yle , needs , attitude s , and adjust accordingl y By continuall y re - e valuating your ob jec tive s and comfor t s , you stand a better chance at managing fu ture f inanc ial e vent s and unfore seen surprise s

The table that follows is based on US f igure s bu t help s illustrate the di fference s in por tfolio compo sition:

: CPM iShare s Model

In our opinion, the mo st impor tant fac tor in f inanc ial planning and wealth management is aligning your por tfolio to your goals . If you could achie ve all your goals and dreams with a 3% return, shouldn’ t your por tfolio be de signed to achie ve this? Many inve stors focus on returns instead of goals Consequentl y, the y take on more risk than required. For the mo st par t , striving for higher returns to exceed your goals doe sn’ t ac tuall y translate into an improvement in li fe st yle G iven inf lation and higher rate s , we strongl y encourage inve stors to re view now be fore the nex t major market e vent and help reduce the turbulence

Until nex t time …Invest Well. L ive Well.

Written

by Eric