The Citizen, 2013-03-21, Page 16PAGE 16. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 21, 2013.Council to take report as constructive feedbackContinued from page 1
the last minute unless they are
extremely time sensitive.
In an interview with The Citizen
after the report was made public,
Mayor Jim Ginn said that he
accepted the report and its
recommendations, but that he didn’t
completely agree with Marin’s
reasoning on some issues.
The term “personal matters” is not
clearly defined in the Municipal Act,
Ginn said. However, Marin gleaned
the definition of the similar phrase
“personal information” from the
Municipal Freedom of Information
and Protection of Privacy Act,
saying it provides a useful reference
point for the issue at hand. Ginn,
however, feels those are a lot of dots
to connect to deem that council
committed any wrongdoing.
“The report goes into a different
act and uses a different phrase,”
Ginn said. “We can use that to
provide a reference point, but to say
that council acted illegally, I don’t
think it’s logical to connect all those
dots.”
Ginn said, however, that the
recommendations made in the report
are mostly procedural and good
changes to implement and it isn’t
worth the trouble to challenge the
Ombudsman’s findings any further.
He also clarified that in his personal
opinion, and that he doesn’t speak
for all of council on the matter.
He said that he couldn’t justify
spending taxpayer dollars on legal
action to more clearly define
council’s actions against the
Ombudsman’s findings and that
council will simply take Marin’s
recommendations and move forward
with them.
He had similar thoughts about the
July 26 Committee of the Whole
meeting, where Marin also found
council had an illegal closed-to-the-
public session.
Council was discussing a matter
further that had originally been
discussed with the municipal
solicitor behind closed doors in a
setting deemed to be legal. To go
back and reference that material,
Ginn said, in closed session only
made sense. Marin, however, felt
differently about the meeting.
The issue in question was a
discussion pertaining to a solar
energy project in the municipality.
Several councillors were confused,
reporting that the municipality’s
lawyer was in attendance for the
meeting, when in fact he had been at
a closed session at an earlier meeting
that month. The matter was
discussed under the solicitor-client
privilege exception. However, Marin
found that there was no specific
piece of legal advice discussed at the
meeting. The discussion, instead,
referred to a letter that had been
received by council. In addition, the
matter was not on the agenda, being
added last minute, another thing
Marin took issue with.
Marin said there were various
responses given as to why the issue
was not put on the agenda, but added
at the meeting. He found that closed-
session discussion surrounding the
issue was not justified.
Ginn, however, sees the review as
a “learning opportunity” for council
and has opted to learn as much from
it as he can.
“I see it as a swinging pendulum,”
Ginn said. “With concerns over the
Privacy Act, everyone worried about
divulging personal information, so
we maybe went too far the other
way. We need to swing that
pendulum back closer to the
middle.”
Ginn said council has to find a
way to balance protecting the private
information of people with the
public’s right to observe council’s
actions.
All of Marin’s recommendations,
Ginn says, pertain to Central
Huron’s procedural bylaw, which is
currently under review. Ginn said
that council simply has to be more
vigilant when it comes to going into
closed sessions.
One recommendation in particular
he wants to implement sooner rather
than later, Ginn says, is the
recommendation that council
records its closed sessions, either
with both video and audio or just
with audio.
He said that practice would help if
the municipality was ever brought
into another investigation with the
Ombudsman. He said that while the
municipality, both council and staff
members, were fully compliant with
investigators, it was tough, at some
points, to recall events that had
happened at meetings as many as six
months earlier.
“It makes their job easier and it
protects us in the future,” Ginn said.
Deputy-Mayor Dave Jewitt called
the report “very balanced” and said
he, like Ginn, would view it as
constructive feedback about
council’s closed meeting procedure.
“Most of the recommendations are
procedural in nature, so that means
it’s something we can control,”
Jewitt said in an interview with The
Citizen after the report was released.
Jewitt said that the
recommendations made by Marin
are all great recommendations, and
while he is in favour of them all, he
has a question with regards to
recording closed meetings, because
there would be a cost to taxpayers
involved with implementing that
recommendation.
“I think we should [record closed
meetings]. I think that’s the best way
of managing it,” he said.
If the meetings had been recorded,
Jewitt said, it would have sped up
the Ombudsman’s review process, as
Marin simply could have reviewed
the recordings and made a
determination. As it stood, Marin
was left to interview council and
staff members in an attempt to piece
the meetings together.
However, Jewitt says, it’s
important for council to realize that
they could have handled things
better and they have to accept
responsibility and move forward in a
better way.
“We have to accept that we made
mistakes and we have to put
parameters in place to not repeat
them,” Jewitt said.
Jewitt also spoke of the
“pendulum”, saying that he and
other councillors have often worried
about making the municipality liable
if a councillor was to divulge too
much information about someone.
“We need to be vigilant and have
open meetings where possible,”
Jewitt said, “but to not have legal
liability come back on the
municipality.”
Jewitt said that while he may have
shared some of Ginn’s skepticisms
with Marin’s determinations, since
Marin is a professional, Jewitt
deferred to him on such matters and
accept what he had to say.
Marin’s investigation of the June
11 meeting deemed that council’s
action fit within the parameters of
the act.
While the in camera session was
added to the agenda the night of the
meeting, Marin found that the
urgency of the issue warranted such
an action and found the closed
session to be legal.
The nine recommendations made
by Marin in his report are:
• The Municipality of Central
Huron should ensure that
discussions that take place in closed
session are under an exception to the
Municipal Act’s closed meeting
requirements are limited to those
matters that council is permitted to
discuss in closed session under the
exceptions in the Act.
• Council for the Municipality of
Central Huron should avoid adding
agenda items at the last minute
unless they are truly urgent. In cases
where an item comes to council’s
attention after the agenda is
prepared, efforts should be made to
amend the agenda prior to the
meeting. When adding an item at the
council meeting, the requirements of
the procedural bylaw should be
followed.
• When proceeding in camera, the
council for the Municipality of
Central Huron should pass a
resolution that provides a general
description of the subject matter to
be discussed.
• When proceeding in camera,
council for the Municipality of
Central Huron should pass a
resolution that clearly states the
direction being given.
• The Municipality of Central
Huron should audio and/or video
record all in camera meetings and
store such recordings in a
confidential and secure fashion for
future reference.
• The council for the Municipality
of Central Huron should follow a
practice of reporting back publicly
after a closed meeting, in at least a
general way, on all matters
considered in camera.
• The Municipality of Central
Huron should amend Section 10 of
its procedural bylaw so that the
wording of the exceptions to the
open meeting requirements is in
keeping with the language of
Section 239 of the Municipal Act.
• The Municipality of Central
Huron should revise its procedural
bylaw to formalize its practice of
providing notice to the public of
meetings by posting the agenda on
its website the Friday prior to the
meeting. It should also ensure that
the bylaw provides for notice to the
public of all meetings, including
special meetings.
• All members of council for the
Municipality of Central Huron
should be vigilant in adhering to
their individual and collective
obligation to ensure that council
complies with its responsibilities
under the Act and its own procedural
bylaw.
Registration for minor ball teams
for Hullett as part of the Tri-County
League takes place this week.
Parents and players should attend
the Londesborough Township shed
on Thursday, March 31 from to 6 to
8 p.m. or Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1
p.m. Players will be sized for shirts
when they register. If you have a
shirt from previous years please
bring it along.
Registration for the Auburn area
can be done at the home of Steve and
Sandra Popp before March 1. Costs
range from $15 to $55. First-time
players need to bring along a copy of
their birth certificate.
On the fifth Sunday of Lent,
March 17 at Londesborough United
Church Terry Fletcher lit the candle
of thankfulness to God for His
faithfulness as we journey to the
cross.
Being as it was St. Patrick’s Day,
Pastor Fletcher slipped back to his
roots and led the congregation in a
Celtic service.
The senior choir sang as its
anthem, the hymn “I Feel the Winds
of God” which is set to an Irish
traditional melody. The prayers and
hymns used that morning all had an
Irish connection. Yet, although they
were for the most part written or
composed centuries ago, the
underlying themes are still relevant
for Christians today.
The Minute for Missions, read by
Brenda Radford, told how the First
United Church Mission Outreach in
Vancouver has recognized that the
homeless on their streets are more in
need of water than clothing.
Providing water meets a personal
need and extends hospitality to these
poor. The congregation has seen how
that glass of water can affect change
in attitude and lives. United Church
mission dollars support this
program.
The children who gathered at the
front of the sanctuary for story time
were shown the new United Church
crest. Terry remarked on how the
new crest differed from the old one
and noted that the United Church
had a special reason for the change.
They wanted their crest to more
accurately represent the variety of
peoples of the present day United
Church in Canada.
The colours of the new crest have
the colours of the Aboriginal colour
wheel – yellow for those of Asian
descent, the east; black for the
peoples of African descent, the
south; red for the native peoples of
Canada, the west and white for
Caucasians, the north. The words at
the bottom of the crest are loosely
translated as ‘all the peoples of the
world are my family’.
The Old Testament reading was
the story of creation, Genesis 1:1-31
and 2:1-2.
Walking in Creation was the title
of Mr. Fletcher’s message to the
adults. Worldwide the Celtic culture
is recognized for its specialness.
When the British Isles were invaded
centuries ago by the Romans, a
culture developed that influenced
Scotland, Ireland, Wales and western
England. This underlying set of
values is Celtic.
Terry recounted the story of St.
Columba who eventually settled on
the island of Iona. Columba means
dove in Latin and his parishioners
nicknamed him the dove of church.
This is the monastery and mission
which originated the Celtic cross.
Columba was an advisor to many
parishes, kings and chiefs
throughout the Celtic lands. His
monks walked about as Christ’s
disciples had spreading the word of
God. They carried little in the way of
material goods believing instead that
‘the Trinity will protect me’ and
‘what have I to fear when thou [God]
art near’. Each day these monks
walked through God’s ‘circle of
creation’. Mr. Fletcher asked “Are
we aware every day of that
circle/creation/family? Do we feel
this connection as do the Aboriginal
peoples of Canada?”
The Londesborough United
Church official board meeting will
be held on March 26 at 7:30 p.m.
By BRENDA
RADFORD
Call
523-4296
PEOPLE AROUND
LONDESBORO
NEWS
FROM LONDESBORO
Jockeying for position
Students like Andrew Fleming, left, and Jacob Moss of
Hullett Central Public School made the most of their recess
on Monday as it was their first day back from vacation. The
duo is shown here playing soccer during their second
recess of the day. (Denny Scott photo)
Ball registration begins