To me, accountability and transparency are the most important values in municipal government, and I believe that it is the responsibility of all elected officials to support the right of their residents and ratepayers to be present, to ask questions and to get involved in the decision-making process.
Council Meeting Times
Earlier this week, Township Council received a delegation from two residents regarding a petition that they had started to ask Council to conduct public consultation on the meeting times for Council and committee meetings. Council is coming to the end of a six-month pilot project where Council meetings were shifted from 6:00 PM to 9:30 AM.
In addition to dismissive comments about several of her fellow Members of Council, Mayor Hoddinott made remarks during the meeting which are simply not factual. She stated that there were 63 daytime meetings during this term of Council and that these meetings HAD to be held in the daytime because they included special items such as budget, strategic planning, land use planning, training and any topic that required a consultant to be present. While the daytime meeting count seems plausible, it is hard to argue that all of these meetings had to be held during the daytime when ALL of these meetings were held in the evenings under previous Councils with no issues. Township staff flexed their time and instead, Members of Council simply read their packages and submitted their questions in advance, showed up prepared to debate and the Council team worked efficiently through the meeting agenda on that basis.
Following strong remarks by Councillor Kevin Rosien noting that he would not have been able to run in the last election if the meetings were scheduled during the daytime, Mayor Hoddinott shared the following: “To any candidate who says that ‘I can’t run because two Council meetings are during the daytime’, how do they plan on accommodating 63 meetings to date? I guess they are not going to show up for budget. They are not going to show up for the strat(egic) plan workshops and the planning meetings. There are daytime meetings. It is a business … Anyone wanting to run needs to know that there are daytime meetings. Even if the Council meetings change back to nighttime, there are daytime meetings. Budget is a big one and that goes on for two or three days. So unless they are planning on not showing up for half of the meetings because daytime restricts them … whoever runs needs to understand that there’s meetings all over the map.” (approximately from 34:00 to 37:00 on the meeting recording)
She also said that “public consultations are legislated by the province and administrative decisions like this (Council meeting time changes) are not legislated for public consultation. Public consultation is for the bigger picture items, that is legislated. So we are not required to do public consultation.” (approximately from 37:00 to 38:00 on the meeting recording)
Important Links:
Meeting Recording – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvQH-OYRSjs
Agenda Package – https://mcnabbraeside.civicweb.net/…/MeetingInformation…
The Path Forward
I join the over 100 Township residents and ratepayers who signed the petition to call on Township Council to conduct effective public consultations before deciding to move forward with permanent Council meeting time changes. I believe that Council and committee meetings should be held in the evenings to allow for greater public involvement. This must include budget meetings, strategic planning meetings, public meetings under the Planning Act and other open session meetings.
In addition, I believe that there should be enhancements made to increase community engagement in the decision-making process, including but not limited to:
- Implementing opportunities for members of the public to ask questions / provide comments at the beginning of each meeting and at the end of each meeting so that Members of Council can hear directly from their residents about the issues that they are discussing.
- Bringing back citizen-led Advisory Committees with dedicated Council Liaisons who do not control the business of each committee but rather work to support the committees and bring their recommendations to the Council table.
- Engaging residents and ratepayers on important municipal issues using both paper and electronic surveys so that Council can also hear from those who are not able to attend Council meetings.
- Preparing regular communications to residents on what the Township and Council are up to, including through newsletters, the Township website and social media channels.
These tangible solutions can be implemented quickly by the new Council, and they would go a long way to allowing for strong participation from our residents and greater awareness of Township programs and services across the community. But I’d also love to hear from you about how you think that the Township Council can be more open and transparent. Drop your thoughts in the comments or feel free to reach out to me directly to discuss anytime!
Oliver Jacob for McNab/Braeside 