North Battleford city council unanimously passed a motion to make public expense claims and meeting attendance records available on the City's website.
The notice of motion, presented by Mayor Ian Hamilton at the Dec. 9 meeting and up for discussion and vote Monday, passed unanimously by a 6-0 vote.
The resolution reads: Be it resolved that the following be made available on the City of North Battleford website on a monthly basis effective Jan. 1, 2014: 1. Reimbursements or allowances for expenses claimed by the mayor, councillors, city manager, city directors and senior managers; and 2. Record of attendances at meetings of council, committee of the whole and committees composed of council members for the mayor, councillors, city manager, city directors and senior managers.
There was general sentiment in favour of putting the information up on the website, with discussion focusing on the finer details of what should be included and how it should be presented.
Councillor Don Buglas wanted to make sure there was a "basic understanding" on "each of our roles as part of council," as in, showing numbers specifically for each committee, such as the Parks and Recreation Committee or the Finance Committee, and other examples.
Councillor Ryan Bater wanted to see additional context included as well, such as legitimate reasons for councillors not being attendance.
He pointed to the Dec. 9 meeting as an example where he was away on business, and came back to discover to discover a few days later a story that ran in the newspaper about the notice of motion. That story in the Regional Optimist featured a picture of two empty seats -one of them being his own.
"I don't need to be embarrassed like that," said Bater.
"I think it's important that the public understands when we are absent. And we are all grownups, we all miss meetings for legitimate reasons. I think it's important the public understand why people miss meetings."
In Bater's case, he missed two council meetings in 2013 due to business and due to a major illness, he said. He also pointed to the resignation of Trent Houk, who missed several meetings in 2013 due to family commitments.
Bater made it known he wanted the rationale for missing a meeting to be included. "If all the public is hearing is an attendance record, with no context about why people are missing, it can look fairly poorly, perhaps unjustly," said Bater.
Hamilton pledged to ensure that was done.
