Mayor Marcel Roy served notice to council that he wants the city’s procedural bylaws reviewed to make sure that city council will be seen as open and completely transparent, a point he campaigned on for the municipal election.
The intentions of this move are good ones, as the new mayor wants Weyburn citizens to know they will be conducting business in the open and won’t try sneaking through anything via a closed-door or in-camera meeting.
Some of the points that Mayor Roy wants addressed include providing more clarity on the policies regarding in-camera meetings, to add provisions to ensure no resolutions can be made in an in-camera meeting, to remove administration committee provisions, to include a public forum at each council meeting where people will get five minutes each (if they wish to speak), and to make sure the city bylaw reflects the Local Authority Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
Coun. Mel Van Betuw made a good point as he wanted to make sure that council wasn’t saying that past councils had done anything underhanded or nefarious by passing motions in a closed-door meeting. This is true, as there has not been any evidence put forward that any previous councils have ever done this, as indeed the provincial legislation for municipalities does not allow for motions to be made in a closed-door session.
Mayor Roy did say he wants to look forward, not backwards, and noted the public has indicated they want this, to have greater transparency in how their governments work.
One of the relevant points he made in his notice of motion is how the administrative meeting works. This meeting has always been a closed-door meeting, and is usually held prior to the open or public portion of the meeting. As the entire council is present for it, he argues, “it is much less a committee meeting but rather an in-camera meeting under the title of an administration committee.”
This is a very good point, as it seems the meeting has been used to have discussions, and in the “public” meeting motions are made without much discussion, and this does not serve the public well as at times the reasoning for a given decision of council is simply not provided.
There are times for discussions on confidential matters, such as when negotiating or in regard to labour relations, but otherwise everything else should be done in the public eye. As Mayor Roy pointed out, they are using taxpayers funds to make decisions for the municipality, so it’s in their best interests to be in the open. — Greg Nikkel
