Wednesday, November 12, 2008

A room with a view so as to properly review


We're not sure what to make of the optics of this, a penthouse meeting at the Coast Hotel , set to host a closed session of Prince Rupert City council in order to discuss two resolutions that will be off limits to the public.

Wednesday evening's extra get together is the latest special closed session of council, a governance procedure that seems to have become used more frequently by this council as 2008 progressed.

From the City of Prince Rupert website, we discovered this item from the Agenda for the Special council session set for 7 pm for Wednesday, November 12, 2008.

Recommendation:

That this meeting will be closed to the public pursuant to the following sections of the Community Charter.

90 (c) labour relations and or other employee relations

90 (g) litigation 0r potential litigation affecting the municipality

As they climb the stairs to overlook the city and decide if they want an inner or a window seat, it would seem that this current outgoing council, is going to possibly leave a rather interesting surprise for the incoming one of November 15th, that is if we are reading the buzzwords of litigation or potential litigation correctly.

With the cone of silence up (and by hosting the meeting in a penthouse we mean up) it will be interesting to learn if the results of the conference will be made public prior to election day, if they are made public at all.

It's the kind of drama that once again calls to mind that ever popular mantra of transparency that was to be the guiding path of this current council... This last official event of their term, steeped in secrecy as it is, kind of outlines the perception of the community over the happenings over the last three years.

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