Mayor Cam Guthrie wants to create, confirm and clarify the roles of City Hall and the Guelph Public Library board when it comes to who does what regarding capital projects.
The Mayor will present a notice of motion at the Guelph City Council's planning meeting on March 20 that he says is aimed at confirming existing roles and clarifying anything that isn't clear when it comes to capital projects such as new library branches and a potential new main library that may be on the horizon.
But the Mayor wants to be clear that he is not looking to take decision making powers away from the library board, just make sure they are both clear about who does what.
He'd rather have things clarified now than have discussion and debate once those opportunities arise.
"If and when an opportunity arises quickly, I want to make sure we're aligned already," the Mayor said.
"I want to make sure there are no delays and that we can hit the ground running. I want to make sure parametres are established."
He said there are no concerns with the current structure, he just want to make sure everything is crystal clear for when the time for major capital decisions arise.
"This hasn't come up before in a really, really long time," Guthrie said of potential major capital decisions.
The Mayor's notice of motion reads as follows:
"That in collaboration with the Guelph Public Library, the current governance structure between the City of Guelph and the Guelph Public Library be reviewed to create or confirm governance and/or terms of reference best practices regarding the future development of a downtown main library and other branch locations."
The motion will move to council's Committee of the Whole for discussion and debate and, if approved, move on to full council for approval.
Guthrie cited such areas as design, relocation of branches, who writes what cheques and who owns what as part of the discussion, citing the new Guelph Police Service headquarters as an example of a city project with a separate board involved where things need to be clear heading towards a project.
"Let's just make it really clear for everybody," Guthrie said.
The Mayor also said that Guelph Public Library CEO Steve Kraft was the first person he met with about the motion.
"I'm not springing this on anyone. There's no surprises here," Guthrie said.
