DAWSON CITY – Three members of Dawson's council faced a standing room only crowd of between 30 and 40 at Wednesday's special meeting called to deal with a cluster of financial matters.

Councillors Stephen Johnson and Rick Riemer were seated with Deputy Mayor Bill Kendrick, who was chairing the last meeting of his quarterly term.

Coun. Wayne Potoroka is on vacation. Several unsuccessful attempts were made to reach the vacationing Mayor Peter Jenkins by telephone.

As it was a special council meeting, there was no place on the agenda for delegations or questions.

Kendrick, however, immediately quelled any thoughts of a protest by agreeing to sit and answer citizens' concerns after the formal part of the meeting.

The two items people wanted to hear about were the provisional budget and the Water and Sewer Bylaw amendment that could take the town out of the water delivery business.

The provisional budget, which is a council resolution rather than a bylaw and a requirement of the Municipal Act, was the first contentious item.

In some fashion, which has not been fully explained, the budget was drafted without listing amounts for the residential and seniors' water and sewer rebates.

That left the town's financial planning process in conflict with its existing water and sewer bylaw, which stipulates that those rebates or subsidies exist.

When the first quarterly bills for utilities were issued this month, the subsidies had been deleted from the notices. Citizens who went to pay their bills were told they would have to pay the entire $425 levy.

There was a draft proposal in the works to change the water and sewer bylaw, but it had not been given even first reading at that point and had no legal standing.

Former town councillor Shirley Pennell complained that she learned of this when she went in to pay her bill early before heading off on a vacation, which would have had her absent past the due date.

She said she believed the draft bylaw made it look as if seniors would be facing a fee increase of more than 142 per cent if they lost the subsidy.

Full-time residents who are not seniors would have seen an estimated 60 per cent increase. For people who were living in rental accommodation, this would mean landlords would be passing on a hefty increase.

‘The city, in the way they handled this, created a lot of concern, as you can see from the people here,” said Pennell.

An amendment to the provisional budget resolution passed at the meeting restored the subsidy

The amendment stated that "council approves the proposed amendments … recognizing that the approval will result in decreasing transfers to reserves by $270,500, and the addition of $245,500 for water and sewer subsidy programs and $25,000 relating to pole rental charges for the cable system.”

Johnson said this move fixed a mistake that happened with respect to the bylaw and the provisional budget being out of sync.

Riemer added this error was totally the council's responsibility and was not the fault of the town staff or administration.

He said the provisional budget had removed the subsidy lines but that the intention of council, in his thinking, was to reduce the charges in the water and sewer bylaw.

"Subsidy”, he noted, seemed to be a red flag word when it was seen by territorial government officials.

He was looking for a way to reduce the actual charges on the utilities to what they are now when the subsidy is applied, thus doing away with the subsidy concept on paper.

Johnson said the town's new accounting software package, currently being implemented by staff, was enabling the town to get a more accurate picture of what water and sewer service delivery actually cost.

As for the discrepancy in the first quarterly billing, Johnson called it the result of a "brain freeze” on his part and apologized several times for the error and inconvenience.

"The original provisional budget had the subsidy in it,” he said.

"It was changed at the last minute. I didn't think about it. I should have. I apologize to all and sundry about that.

"The reason why we're having this special meeting is to rectify that mistake that the council made. As Councillor Riemer said, it had nothing to do with administration at all.”

Riemer and Kendrick stated that at no time had they personally considered raising utilities charges to seniors. That appeared to be one of the proposals in the draft water and sewer amendment on the agenda for the Jan. 12 council meeting, which was not held due to a lack of quorum.

"It was news to me,” said Kendrick.

Helmut Schoener, a former councillor and retired dentist, said the level of attendance at Wednesday's noon hour meeting when it was -42° C should tell council how seriously people viewed the issue. He and René Jansen wanted to know how such an idea ever got onto the council agenda in the first place, and were not entirely satisfied with Riemer's explanation.

Earlier in the week, town staff had stopped asking for the complete billing amount and were accepting cheques or cash for the subsidized amount – $281.25 for the bill of $425.