“Business arising from the minutes” was up for reconsideration again as an item on the town’s regular meeting agenda despite objections from town clerk Dina Lundy and Mayor Allan Alls.
In a 3-2 vote, councillors Matt Sammut, Rob Smith and Jeff Duncan voted to have staff add “business arising from the minutes” to the council’s regular meeting agenda and bring it back for council consideration. Alls and councillor John Brennan were in opposition.
After council decided on Feb. 3 to keep the town’s procedural bylaw as is, Sammut opened up the discussion once again at the April 21 meeting because of a recent council experience.
“[The reason] I brought it forward was specifically the fact that I had to be away for a meeting that I wanted to dearly be at, I did everything in my power to be at it, through Skype, through telephone etc. and I couldn’t,” he explained. “So it would be nice to be able to know that the next session I will be able to go back and ask as many questions as I’d like.”
Sammut missed the second budget meeting and voted against passing the 2015 budget at the April 21 meeting.
He said his main concern is that he wants to be able to question things that happen when he is not at a meeting.
“I want the opportunity in council chambers to be able to, once in a while, where I see fit, discuss such things. Those are the core arguments that I believe it should be in place because I don’t think any councillor should be handcuffed to be able to ask questions in front of the public.”
Lundy said that councillors are not prevented from asking questions.
“If you miss a meeting you’re more than welcome to put a discussion item on the next agenda to catch up or to ask those questions,” she said. “It’s a matter of leaving it open to discuss any matter that’s already been decided and not having the openness and transparency of everybody knowing what is going to be discussed and I think that’s the reason that I feel strongly that it should stay off the agenda for efficiency and for the respect of the public, the staff and the council.”
Councillor Jeff Duncan countered her statement saying, “I see that this does give council the ability to be more transparent and that we can have a more ebb and flow of information. The efficiency of the meeting is important but it’s not our prime job.”
Although Lundy said the section of the meeting called “adoption of the minutes” could be used to clarify portions of previous meetings and that councillors are always welcome to add things to the agenda, Sammut said he was still looking to question decisions at previous meetings as he sees fit. He said the minutes do not provide enough detail.
“It’s a matter of fairness and the amount of time we have necessarily to be with staff on a consistent basis because there’s a lot of challenging issues in our town and … I don’t think it’s going to be used often,” he said. “I don’t think it will ever be abused but I think when we do need it, it could be a good tool to really open up good discussion.”
After Alls pointed out that including “business arising from the minutes” on the regular agenda goes against the town lawyer’s recommendation, Sammut, Smith and Duncan voted in favour of the addition and council approved the addition at the May 5 meeting.
