When North Battleford city council comes back in 2014 they will have a motion in front of them to disclose their expense claims and their attendance records at meetings.
Mayor Ian Hamilton filed a notice of motion at the end of Monday's council meeting. His resolution, to be introduced at the next meeting, reads as follows:
"Be it resolved that the following be made available on the City of North Battleford website on a monthly basis effective January 1, 2014.
"Firstly, reimbursements or allowances of expenses claimed by the mayor, city councillors, city manager, city directors and senior managers.
"And secondly, that the record of attendance at meetings of council, committee of the whole and committees composed of council members for the mayor, city councillors, city manager, city directors and senior managers be posted."
That resolution will come up for discussion at city council Jan. 13.
The issue of greater transparency at City Hall has been a hot one for some time. Members of the public and various interest groups including the Facebook group North Battleford Victims of Crime, have pushed for greater transparency from City Hall in disclosing crime instances and in making meetings more open and accountable.
Councillor Trent Houk has taken up that call at recent meetings. He pushed for the recent reinstatement of the "activities of interest" portion of the RCMP statistical report and also called for live-streaming all city council meetings, something not done at the moment.
However, the wording of the notice of motion seemed to take aim at Houk's own inconsistent attendance at council over the past couple of years. Notably, neither Houk nor councillor Ryan Bater were in attendance at Monday's meeting when the notice was presented.
The issue of publishing attendance records of council members is not a new one. Councillor Ron Crush raised the idea in 2012 .
Though nothing came of it at the time, the issue revived itself at City Hall Monday.
The call to disclose expense claims of city officials on a monthly basis comes in the wake of news stories on controversies in other levels of government such as the Senate expenses scandal.
Hamilton acknowledged to reporters the role recent events played.
"I think it's just current events across Canada, and locally," said Hamilton.
"As elected officials we are all being held more accountable, and more and more people are calling for more transparency in government circles whether that be provincial or federal. I think it's just a realization that we're in a situation, an environment, where people want to be assured that this information is available to them."
Hamilton called it a "sign of the times," and added "transparency and accountability is what I feel we want to demonstrate to the public."
