City council caught holding another secret meeting
meeting agenda online. According to the agenda, the meeting was held to discuss “personal matters about an identifiable in- dividual, including municipal or local board employees.” This is not the first time city council has held secret meetings at city hall this term. Late last year it held a number of closed se- cret meetings over the span of a number of weeks, contrary to the Ontario Municipal Act. Clerk Denise Labelle-Gelinas admitted blame in past instances for failing to give public notice of meetings, generally blam- ing the failure to provide proper notice on technical problems. The city began providing notification for all meetings, including in camera sessions, after it was criticized for ignoring proper procedure when it used an in camera ses- sion to berate Councillor Andre Rivette for opinions voiced to the media. A report on the issue by closed meeting in- vestigator Steve Fournier was accepted by council at a meeting April 23. Two days of governance sessions to help city councillors and administration brush up on procedure were held about one week later. greg.kielec@eap.on.ca
By Greg Kielec
The city has held another secret council meeting, less than two months after it held a governance session after being ad- monished for not following proper proce- dure during meetings. The unannounced meeting was held at 4 p.m. last Monday at city hall. There was no notice of the meeting pro- vided the public or media, contrary to reg- ulations in the Ontario Municipal Act. The Journal forwarded a list of questions last week to Deputy Clerk Manon Poirier. “I was away on course all of last week and only returned to the office Monday morn- ing,” she wrote “I can, however, advise you that all Coun- cillors were in attendance with the excep- tion of Councillor Elaine MacDonald who joined in by teleconference.” “I am taking the liberty of forwarding your questions to the City Clerk (Denise La- belle-Gelinas), who prepared the agenda last week, for response,” she wrote. The Journal had not received a response from Labelle-Gelinas as of press time Mon- day. The city has subsequently posted the
File photo The Journal is awaiting a response from city clerk Denise Labelle-Gelinas, pictured above, about a secret meeting it held on Monday, just weeks after being admonished for not following proper procedure under the Ontario Municipal Act.
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