It may not have been typical, but Leslie Beck and Bill Hanson took their oaths of office for Flin Flon’s city council last week - from the comfort of their own homes.
Beck and Hanson each formally joined city council May 18 after being the top two finishers for council in the May 12 byelection, being sworn in via Zoom as in-person council meetings cannot currently be held under provincial health orders.
Both councillors swore they met all qualifications for office - that they were Canadian citizens over age 18, certified electors for the City of Flin Flon, that they are not disqualified under any provisions of the Manitoba Municipal Act or local bylaws and they will act in good faith and best judgement as councillors - and became a part of City leadership once again.
“I’m kind of excited about being here,” said Hanson in his introductory comments.
“I just want to again thank the community for stepping up, those who came out to vote,” Beck said, adding thanks for the volunteers and staff that conducted the election itself at City Hall.
“It was well-run. I was in there, my son was in there, my husband was in there all at different times and there was a steady stream of people. IIt takes a lot of work to run something like that and I definitely want to thank the community at large.”
Both took some time getting used to Zoom meetings - while the other four city councillors, Mayor Cal Huntley and senior administrators have been meeting via Zoom twice a month for months during the pandemic, both new councillors had technical difficulties. The start of the meeting was delayed several minutes as the two newly elected members tried to get on the meeting call.
Beck was able to show her face to the rest of council via the use of an iPad, but could not get the device’s microphone to work - as a workaround, Beck called councillor Karen MacKinnon’s personal cell phone and spoke through her phone. Councillor Hanson, also new to video conferencing with council, had intermittent Internet connectivity and audio issues throughout the meeting and needed to use two phones at times to fully connect with his fellow councillors.
Both councillors plan to take part in further sessions to get them up to speed on City and provincial policy, information and finances - as well as lessons on how to successfully meet remotely.
“I might come in tomorrow and see if I can get [assistant City of Flin Flon chief administrative officer] Nicole [Hartman] to give me a couple lessons here,” joked Hanson.
