(Sent to the AV News on September 28 2026)
Dear Editor,
The 2PM city council meetings are not only supremely inconvenient for the general public who have a job, they also, according to at least one potential council candidate this election, limit who we have running to represent us on City Council. The ACRD directors have also had their regular meetings in the middle of the day for years.
When I was councillor in 2014-2018 we had our Monday meetings at 5PM for in-camera (aka confidential) meetings and 7PM for the public council meeting. As someone with a regular 9-5 job, that was workable for me and my employer. We also had decent public attendance even when we sometimes ran to 10PM or later. I never felt that we were not accessible. The schedule for the past two terms of council has been for in-camera meetings as early as 11:30AM before the 2PM regular Monday meeting. This is simply unworkable for a working councillor or member of the public.
There are about half the number of candidates running this year than we have had for the past 4 elections. I believe this is a big reason why. Regular meetings are where the actual decisions are made and it’s how people decide whether to run for these positions or not. I urge all councillors and directors running, to commit to changing these schedules to the evenings when the greatest number of people can participate in our local democracy.
Sincerely
Chris Alemany
P.S.
The number of candidates in Port Alberni municipal elections since 2008:
Year: Mayor/Coucnil