Stuck

Council rejects proposal to move meetings to the evening

Council regularly meets as a committee twice a month to discuss the business of the County. They consider equipment purchases, review policy, consider new bylaws and hear from residents or folks seeking to do business with the municipality.

Committee of the whole meetings, as they are described officially, is where much of the discussion, deliberation, arm twisting and debate takes place. By the time most issues make it to council meetings to be confirmed, they have been well-aired at the committee of the whole.

These meetings, typically held on Thursday afternoons, get underway by 1 p.m.

That is a problem for folks who work during the day—but would nevertheless consider serving on County council. Carving a few hours out of a busy work day is a luxury only a few can afford.

It wasn’t always this way. Township and town councils traditionally met in the evenings to avoid taking folks away from earning their livelihood during the day.

Along the way, however, committee meetings were moved to the daytime. For retired folks, daytime meetings work fine— but for others it has posed a formidable barrier to participationt, borne out by comments made at candidate information evenings conducted recently.

Councillor Bev Campbell proposed a simple solution—change the committee of the whole meetings to the evening, on a trial basis only. For the remaining 10 meetings in this council term, she proposed that committee of the whole meetings get underway at 7 p.m. rather than 1 p.m..

“These are some of the most important meetings we have,” said Campbell. “It is the meat of what we do. But those who are employed in the daytime are unable to attend.”

She also suggested the test would give the cohort of candidates, and potential candidates, the opportunity to attend these meetings.

“It is an opportunity for them to get up to speed on the issues of the day,” said Campbell.

By proposing to change the time of these meeting on a trial basis only, the councillor may have hoped to avoid the defensive reaction of some councillors. It didn’t work.

“It seems unfair to this council,” said Ameliasburgh councillor Janice Maynard. “It is also unfair to burden staff [by attending evening meetings]. They have a life too.”

Maynard noted that afternoon meetings were also more conducive to family life.

Several councillors worried that committee of the whole meetings sometimes go longer than three hours. They worry about fatigue affecting their decision-making and impacting their drive home particularly on snowy winter evenings.

“Meetings could go past 10 p.m.,” warned another Ameliasburgh councillor Nick Nowitski.

But most meetings wouldn’t.

FACT CHECK
The truth is very few meetings go longer than three hours. Since the beginning of the year, council has met eight times as a committee of the whole. The longest meeting—dealing with the fire plan—was conducted in three hours and 20 minutes. The average length of a committee of the whole meeting so far in 2014 is just two hours and one minute.

But facts likely wouldn’t have informed the discussion. There was a current of irritation running through many of the remarks—that the councillor from Picton had proposed the motion to encourage others to run, presumably to replace them.

“If you are not willing to be flexible, you are not a good candidate for this job,” said Nowitski, swatting at theoretical council candidates.

Hillier councillor Alec Lunn echoed the comment.

“If you are not prepared to commit the time, this isn’t the place for you,” said Lunn. “Besides, it isn’t just committee of the whole meetings that meet in the daytime.”

Sophiasburgh councillor Kevin Gale said there was no need to accommodate additional potential candidates. He figures more candidates have put their name forward at this stage of the race than any other election year.

“The system is working,” said Gale. “It is the wrong message to send to potential members of council.”

There were a few voices, including Wellington Councillor Jim Dunlop and Mayor Peter Mertens, willing to give the trial a chance, but not enough to make a difference.

Hallowell councillor Heather Campbell said it was a basic principle of democracy that meeting times be set to encourage participation rather than exclude it.

“This purpose is to promote public education about what we do and how we do it,” she said. “It is a public process and we should make an effort to accommodate residents as best we can.”

There was little appetite, however, for a discussion about democratic principles. Most councillors had come armed with a handful of reasons why changing meeting times to the evening was a bad thing or an unfair thing and they appeared more interested in preserving the status quo than considering fresh ideas.

The motion lost. It was a surprise to no one.