Last night, Committee of the Whole in Williams Lake had their usual meeting and then was required to meet In-Camera with no reason given. The Public Notice Posting Place, which is the bulletin board in the Foyer Area (1st Floor) at City Hall had no info posted on Council's intention to have a Closed Meeting. Although Council does have the power to have a meeting (Special/Closed) with no advance notice to the public, it does not meet with the principles of notifying the public at the most earliest opportunity possible (including during a meeting, the intention of Council to hold a closed meeting later and for what purposes)
Having a Closed Meeting can only be done for 3 primary reasons:
1) Labour
2) Land
3) Law
I hope that this Council ensures in the future that it announces, whether beforehand or at a meeting (if it intends to move to a closed meeting immediately following a open/public meeting) its' intention to move to a closed meeting and state the purposes of the meeting. Not doing so is contrary to democratic principles.
2 comments:
Thanks for the great article. I support and open and transparent govenernment and have been active as a City Councillor promoting transparency. I have a website at brianskakun.com that covers issues like this. There are also several news websites that have been covering a story I have been involved with regarding an alleged disclosure to the media about a controversial city report that dealt with an issue at our local RCMP detachment. I will post the nes links in my next blog.
Brian Skakun
City Councillor
City of Prince George
bskakun@telus.net
Here are a few of the news links relating to my freedom of information issues.
http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/20090819208770/local/news/city-manager-defends-privacy-investigation.html
http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/20091124999917032/local/news/skakun-pleads-not-guilty-to-foi-charge.html
Brian Skakun
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