On the long road to developing a code of ethics for council, an interesting question has cropped up.
Mayor Lou Maieron has asked if council should be implementing such a code halfway through its term.
He asked clerk Kathryn Ironmonger what the Municipal Act said regarding commentary included within the minutes.
Maieron asked if the minutes were to be taken without comment.
“Without note or comment … yes,” Ironmonger said.
Maieron then commented on discussion regarding Dennis Perlin and the proposed code of conduct for council.
He said if it was not a unanimous decision halfway through a term of council to implement one – “if there is no kumbaya moment, which is sort of telling, perhaps it should be put off until the next term of council.”
Ironmonger said the minutes are there to provide information on what happened “not to be verbatim.”
Maieron said there had been discussions on interpretation in the past.
Ironmonger asked if Maieron wanted those comments removed from the minutes.
“Maybe if the concerns listed are not complete, perhaps they shouldn’t be in there,” Maieron said.
He contended the minutes reflected a number of negative comments such as the possibility of a code being used as “a weapon of choice”.
Councillor John Brennan said, “I can hazard to guess you will never get unanimous consent regarding comments – human nature being what it is.”
Brennan did not expect the clerk to “record everything”, nor should council expect her to.
“Human memory being what it is, we will probably remember things differently.”
He said he would hate to cut comments entirely because there are many occasions which may be helpful.
Ironmonger again asked whether council wanted the comments removed.
Brennan suggested that going forward, “I would not like to see nothing except for resolutions – to me that does not convey the flavour of the meeting.”
He then offered the idea that if the clerk was to include comments “it would be for clarification purposes only.”
Council was anticipated to make a decision on the code of ethics at the March 19 meeting.
