Who Needs Council Meetings

Should we be upset if Council meetings are held biweekly given the new Council secrecy stats?

Why should we worry--delegation lists and agendas now are posted in the last minute so there is little time to prepare and sometimes with surprise add-ons that never appear online or the Order of Business is posted too late.

Eddie Francis who ran for Mayor on a platform of weekly meetings is now saying:

• "Some city councillors are uncomfortable accepting a recommendation to cut back on the number of regular council meetings, but Mayor Eddie Francis said there's no need to worry.
  
  He would like to see regular weekly meetings replaced with bi-weekly meetings for normal council business, with the off weeks set aside for single-issue meetings or discretionary meetings.
  
  "There's enough work to keep us busy," he said. "What we really need to look at is the form of our meetings."
  
  Francis said issues such as the ongoing border debate, the community strategic plan, transportation or any other big-ticket matter could be stand-alone items on the off weeks."

Let's take a look at the past to see what might take place in the future:

• How many public meetings have we had on the border during the last term? A handful
• How many People Based Budget meetings did we have? We don't do that any more
• How many public arena meetings did we have before a decision was made to go to the East end of town? Very few
• How many public strategic plan meetings are held? A few at the start of Council's term and this year "The public was barred from a city council meeting Thursday to discuss the top issues facing Windsor in the next four years" since the CAO over-ruled the Mayor
• How many public sessions to look at the Tunnel Plaza Improvements project? The last one was cancelled and never rescheduled.
• How many public sessions to discuss asset sales and leases? I don't remember any
• How many public meetings to discuss the Enwin problems? I don't remember any
• How many public meetings to discuss the bleeding red ink at the airport? I don't remember any
• How many public meetings to discuss Council's #1 issue: development of the transportation hub and the airport lands? I don't remember any
• How many public meetings on the urban village? The last I heard was that Eddie "said a report to council in February will enable the city to issue a request for proposals and there are strong indications of developer interest." Now, none are needed
• How many meetings so far on the Engineering complex moving downtown. Zero
• How many meetings so far about spending $75M on the Tunnel deal. Not a one

Well you get my drift....We would have not filled up the other "off-week" with work either.

Now I have a better idea. Remember the stats over in camera meetings:

• "January to September 28, 2006. Twenty-nine (29) in camera meeting have taken place in that time with 137 items being considered during a total of 47 hours and 48 minutes. By comparison, thirty-four (34) open meetings were held with 430 items being considered during a total of 91 minutes and 25 minutes."
• Council met for nearly 26 hours in public session over the course of 10 meetings held between October and December 2006. During the same period, council met for just over eight hours behind closed doors. (Of course this was election time so we would hardly expect Councillors to waste too much time in secret meetings when they had doors to knock on!).
• During the first quarter of 2007, Council met 24 hours in public session, 20 hours in camera

And remember also that dinners have to be paid for since Councillors come in early on Monday afternoons for the in camera work before the public sessions.

Why don't we just ban in camera meetings completely unless, say, 2/3 or 3/4 of Councillors vote for one on a specific subject.

In that way, Councillors can come in right at 6 PM so they can eat dinner at home, they won't have to figure out behind closed doors what they are going to do in public and we can have true debates about the issues in public.

Why don't we just admit reality...certain members of Council are uncomfortable about appearing in public other than getting his/her name in the paper or having a 30 second clip on radio or television. Would you believe it that a certain Councillor still has not gone on John Fairley's Face-to-Face interview show although invited many times. Some cannot stand being confronted and being told to their face that they have messed up or at fault. Decision-making is so much easier behind closed doors so that conflicts and differences of opinion can be covered over.

Oh heck, why have any Council meetings anyway. Even the Councillors are left in the dark many times on the big issues.