The 2018 – 2022 council held strategic planning sessions in public with only limited time in a closed section as required by the Community Charter. Most importantly residents were given the opportunity to provide input and ask questions. Prior to 2019 these sessions had been held in camera.
Ongoing rhetoric by the usual few in the community continues to claim closed meetings are driven by members of this previous council. Because the chair/mayor and CAO set agendas it is safe to assume Berry-Blackwell chose to hold tonight’s planning session behind closed doors.
So much for transparency.
Will the now returned councillors vote to hold the meeting in public at the start of the 6 PM meeting? Or will residents be left to wonder what decisions about their future are being made behind their backs?
UPDATE: At the start of the meeting Cllr. Abbott announced he would be asking that the meeting move back into public but the meeting remained closed indicating his motion must have been defeated.
Side note: The agenda cites an invalid reason for closing the meeting to the public: s.98 of the Community Charter applies to annual reports, not planning sessions.
