Carbonear council approves monthly committee-of-the-whole meetings

By Craig Westcott/September 23, 2022

Starting in October, council will move ahead with regular monthly “discussion meetings” with staff.

“I asked for that to be added to (tonight’s) agenda,” councillor Danielle Doyle said last Tuesday at the Town’s biweekly public meeting. “Prior to the election last September, council met regularly before the council meetings on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month for discussion items, question and answer sessions with staff, any pertinent information we might need to know to help us make decisions. It was becoming a lot before the Tuesday council meetings. Sometimes we’d meet at 4:30, sometimes we’d meet at 5 o’clock and then we’d have our council meeting at 5:30 and there were some complaints that it was going on a long time and things were rushed and you might have five things on the agenda and you might only get to three. So, I understand all of that. But from that there was a discussion held that we were going to have regular Monday meetings… Since the end of September (last year), to the best of my knowledge, I think we’ve only had two Monday meetings. And as will be coming out in our Strategic Plan, communication is a huge issue within the Town of Carbonear in my own opinion. So, if we’re not meeting to discuss issues with ourselves and with staff, then obviously those issues are going to continue to get bigger and bigger and we’re not going to problem solve anything by us not discussing (things). I’ve sent multiple e-mails to which I’ve received no response about when we’re having these Monday meetings, so I thought this would be the best place for us to talk about it and set a date.”

Councillor Ray Noel agreed the “discussion meetings” served a valuable role and council should look at it again.

Mayor Frank Butt pointed out that council held just such a meeting the day before, so there is probably no need to hold another one this month.

After some discussion around the table, council agreed to start the monthly Monday meetings beginning October 3.

There was no discussion as to whether such private meetings may be in contravention of the Municipalities Act.

According to the Municipal Council Handbook published by the Department of Municipal Affairs, “Privileged meetings are exceptions and should not used to exclude the public from deliberations. The process of calling a privileged meeting, as a separate meeting or during a public meeting, are outlined in the Rules of Procedure. Any resolution from a privileged meeting must be re-introduced, moved, seconded, and passed at a public meeting in order to be valid.”

The Handbook also outlines the circumstances in which private, or privileged, meetings are allowed.

“Meetings can be declared or held as privileged for a variety of reasons, including:

• Confidential and personal information

• Human resource matters

• A sensitive matter that could impair council’s ability to carry out its activities, i.e. negotiations

• Information that could cause financial loss or gain to a person or business

• A proposed or pending acquisition, disposition or expropriation of property

• Commercially sensitive information

• Matters relating to litigation or legal advice

The Municipalities Act, 1999 does not refer specifically to other types of meetings but from time to time council may meet for a specific purpose or matter which cannot wait until the next scheduled meeting.”