Should municipal councils be recording closed meetings?
Deputy mayor Terry Fisk raised the question at the Jan. 14 Minto council meeting, citing a notice from Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin that recommends the practice of making audio or video recordings of all meetings, open or closed.
Minto makes video recordings of regular council meetings and posts them on the town’s website. The town holds an in-camera session prior to nearly every regular meeting.
Fisk pointed out, “We don’t record our closed meetings and I don’t know if that is something we should be looking at.”
“That is the ombudsman’s position,” replied CAO Bill White. “That’s one position.
“We do take minutes of a closed session,” White continued.
“I would say that in the municipal field the jury is out on whether they really ought to be recorded in a closed session. So we don’t record them in closed. If you like, I could bring back information to you, but I can tell you it’s probably split. Some of the experts say don’t record them.”
White pointed out the municipality has an appointed closed meeting investigator, Norm Gamble, a former municipal administrator who also acts as the closed meeting watchdog for most other municipalities in Wellington County and, “we haven’t had to call him in.”
Fisk said, “I just thought it was interesting and as a council I wanted us to be doing what we should be doing.”
In 2013, Minto held 23 regular meetings. A pre-scheduled in-camera session was held prior to 19 regular meetings. In 2012, council held 25 meetings and 23 closed sessions.
