By the time they assemble that old gang again at City Hall; over one month of time will have passed by.
With the March 25th session of City council reportedly having been cancelled with its waiting agenda still posted on the city website, we find that the last time that council met in an open public forum and for which public published minutes were provided, was March 10th.
The next scheduled council meeting is set for April 14, marking a 34 day absence of accountable and transparent governance. Making our civic government almost as inclined towards downtime as our provincial representatives, who have perhaps the best deal in all of elected politics, such is the light load of onerous debate at the legislature.
However, as civic governance is the most immediate one for the people, the prospect of more than a month between council meetings certainly doesn’t paint the picture of an essential service for the people.
Municipal government is the one form of government that has the most impact on the public’s day to day lives and it’s the one form of government that the public feel the most comfortable with. They have a sense of true participation in the process, in that they can stop a councilor or mayor for a discussion on pressing issues of the day, well at least when they are around town.
Considering there do seem to be a few issues around town that are of importance to the folks paying the taxes, it wouldn’t hurt if we could be advised as to why this meeting was missed, not rescheduled and if this is going to be a frequent problem for the current roster of participants.
It’s not so much that a long stretch of time has gone between the meetings, but more the concept that it seems to have been considered not a big deal and there was no need to advise the public as to why or what is going on.
Once upon a time there were weekly council meetings, which gave way to the bi-weekly process in place now; perhaps in the not too distant future we’ll be hearing of monthly meetings. One wonders if indeed absence will make our hearts grow fonder...
The lack of information flow from council and the seemingly irreverent interest in holding meetings tends to make the place seem more of a politburo, rather than an open and accountable debating chamber.
With the March 25th session of City council reportedly having been cancelled with its waiting agenda still posted on the city website, we find that the last time that council met in an open public forum and for which public published minutes were provided, was March 10th.
The next scheduled council meeting is set for April 14, marking a 34 day absence of accountable and transparent governance. Making our civic government almost as inclined towards downtime as our provincial representatives, who have perhaps the best deal in all of elected politics, such is the light load of onerous debate at the legislature.
However, as civic governance is the most immediate one for the people, the prospect of more than a month between council meetings certainly doesn’t paint the picture of an essential service for the people.
Municipal government is the one form of government that has the most impact on the public’s day to day lives and it’s the one form of government that the public feel the most comfortable with. They have a sense of true participation in the process, in that they can stop a councilor or mayor for a discussion on pressing issues of the day, well at least when they are around town.
Considering there do seem to be a few issues around town that are of importance to the folks paying the taxes, it wouldn’t hurt if we could be advised as to why this meeting was missed, not rescheduled and if this is going to be a frequent problem for the current roster of participants.
It’s not so much that a long stretch of time has gone between the meetings, but more the concept that it seems to have been considered not a big deal and there was no need to advise the public as to why or what is going on.
Once upon a time there were weekly council meetings, which gave way to the bi-weekly process in place now; perhaps in the not too distant future we’ll be hearing of monthly meetings. One wonders if indeed absence will make our hearts grow fonder...
The lack of information flow from council and the seemingly irreverent interest in holding meetings tends to make the place seem more of a politburo, rather than an open and accountable debating chamber.
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