Creating a responsive, open, transparent, accountable new city council is our best hope of dealing with our concerns about housing, including heritage, affordability, and climate friendly re-purposing of existing buildings
Mike Sullivan of the Good Governance Group (3G) of Stratford has kindly provided Stratford residents with this critical information:
In Camera (secret) city council meetings
In early 2021 a closed meeting investigator found that the city had routinely illegally hid the nature of the business being discussed in camera. So starting in June of 2021, the city mended its ways. However, the city refused to retroactively reveal the nature of the business that had been discussed In Camera.
Importantly, no member of the currently sitting council raised objections to in camera meetings before complaints were filed.
In December 2021, a further 146 closed meeting investigations were filed, seeking to expose the nature of the business being discussed by council. On Oct 20, 2022, the investigator’s 85 page report was released (see link below). The investigator limited his report to only the 56 meetings from January 2020 to June 2021.
We had hoped the report would be filed well before the beginning of the current municipal election.
The investigator’s findings can be summarized as follows. All 143 agenda items he examined in those meetings illegally hid the nature of the business being discussed. In addition, 28 of those items were illegally discussed In Camera, and should have been discussed in open session. Ten other items were discussed under the wrong exemption, but could have been discussed in camera. And on 8 occasions, the discussion wandered off topic so much that the matter should have been split and another agenda item added to open session.
The investigator does not have the power to impose any penalty or sanction. His only power is to make public his findings and let voters decide.
He did spend considerable effort analyzing each meeting, and provided welcome instruction on the meaning and use of the exemptions under the act.
He did not examine whether any votes were taken illegally. All voting, except to direct staff, must happen in open session. There were never open session votes on any of the decisions about the glass factory, for example.
The report is available to read on the city website.
Mike Sullivan