No growth-fee vote or Marion decision as council gathers for first time this fall

Two of the biggest issues facing city hall won't be decidedat today's meeting of city council but they are still up for debate.

This morning, all of council gathers for the first meeting of the fall. The agenda is relatively light, thanks to a pair of decisions made last week to put off decisions about the growth fees and the Marion Street widening.

On Sept. 19, council's public works committee voted to put off a decision on cancelling the $566-million Marion Street widening until November. The holdup was a lack of information about whether the city ought to hire a new consulting firm to figure out a cheaper alternative.

Then on Sept. 21, council's executive policy committee voted to hold off on approving a plan to begin charging growth fees in Winnipeg as soon as 2017.

While bothissues will likely be mentioned during question period today, no decisions will be made.Here are fourissues that actually are on the agenda:

1. Better disclosure of golden parachutes

Council is poised to approve a motion that will direct city staff to come up with a way to provide more detail as part of the city's annual compensation disclosure, which is a list of all city staff who earn more than $50,000 in salaries and benefits.

• Council mulls more transparent way to disclose public-servant pay

Right now, the city only publishes a lump-sum amount. This leads to questions about how much money is paid out in severance to former employees, such as departed acting chief administrator Deepak Joshi, who was paid $567,000 for several weeks worth of work in 2015.

2. A plea to BrianPallister

In what amounts to a symbolic gesture, council is poised to ask the provincial Progressive Conservative governmentto reconsiderManitoba Liquor & Lotteries'decision to abandon its planned conversion of downtown'sMedical Arts Building into a new headquarters for the Crown corporation.

Last week, Liquor & Lotteries' new board declared the $75-million projectwill not proceed.

• Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries scraps $75M relocation plan

City council has a modest protest in mind.They plan to vote on the followingmotion:

"That the province of Manitoba be encouraged to continue to consider downtown Winnipeg for future consolidation or relocation of the Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries headquarters."

3. No more library fines for kids

Winnipeg's libraries branch wants to get rid of fines for overdue books taken out by kids and young-adults as a means of promoting literacy. The fines pose a disincentive to read for families of limited means, community services officials conclude.

• Winnipeg libraries want to eliminate overdue fees for kids and young adults

Pending a vote today, those fines will be a thing of the past, provided councillors can figure out a way to live without $102,000 worth of revenue in next year's budget.

4. Cash for condos

While the city considers the idea of surcharges on new developments, council is poised to dole out $2 million to help build a pair of condo projects.

D Condos on Assiniboine Avenue is up for $1.9 million, while YouCubeproject on Waterfront Drive is in line for a $135,000 grant.

• City to provide $2M worth of grants to help build downtown condos

Both projects didn't meet a deadline for a previous city-provincial housing-stimulus program, according to a pair of reports before council.