By Pepper Parr
September 11, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
The Community and Corporate Standing Committee will meet on Tuesday September 15th at 1:00 pm in the afternoon and again at 6:30 if required.
Standing committees have a procedure they follow. There is a Consent Agenda which consists of Reports of a routine nature, which are not expected to require discussion and/or debate. Any council member can ask that an item be pulled from the Consent agenda for discussion – if not they are all passed in one vote.
For the Community and Corporate Standing committee the following are on the September 15th consent agenda:
Report recommending approval of Burlington Inclusivity Advisory Committee 2015 work plan and providing the 2014 annual report.
Report providing the City of Burlington’s financial status as at June 30, 2015.
Report providing information regarding insurance litigation as of July 31, 2015.
Report recommending approval of a Municipal Capital Facility Exemption for the Aldershot Library By-Law.
Report providing information regarding the operating budget performance as at June 30th.
From time to time a standing Committee considers Confidential Matters which are usually Human Resources issues or property sale and or acquisition issues.
Confidential reports may require a closed meeting in accordance with the Municipal Act, 2001. Meeting attendees may be required to leave during the discussion.
Air Park matter is before the city again – to be discussed as a confidential legal matter this time – something is up.
The list this time around is extensive:
Confidential legal department report providing an update regarding the Ontario Municipal Board hearing for 374 Martha Street.
Confidential legal department report providing an update regarding Burlington Airpark.
Confidential legal department report providing quarterly litigation update from May 1 to July 31, 2015.
Confidential finance department report providing the status of the reserve for contingencies as of July 31, 2015.
Confidential appendices A and B of finance department report providing information regarding insurance litigation as at July 31, 2015.
Confidential memorandum from Councillor Craven’s office regarding proposed acquisition of land by the municipality.
Confidential and consent matters make up the bulk of the agenda – all there is left is a Report providing the state of the downtown report and recommending approval of core commitment performance measures.
The ADI application to put up a 28 storey structure is now before the OMB – city has some information they want to talk about behind closed doors – why?
The one item on the agenda that isn’t either a consent matter or a confidential matter is a report providing the state of the downtown which recommends approval of the core committeemen performance measures.
This could be a short meeting for the public. The gazette will provide background on several of the confidential matters
We want to hear more about the confidential matters that are not related to human resource issues to see if in fact these matters should be made open and transparent to the public. No need to know the details, just the topic of discussions would be fine and who may be involved. Why all the secrecy?
There is an ever growing concern and little faith that the leadership at city hall can deal competently with confidentially controlled issues. No need to bring up the pier as a recent example – just saying. And who is selling city property? What property is being sold? How about the Human Resource situation, is there a change in the staff? are people leaving? are we hiring more staff? what is so confidential about that? Are we getting somebody to lead the planning department, the Official Plan review? Is the mayor’s staff sticking around to see the ‘vision’ of ‘vibrancy’ – yuck, come to fruition, what is the vision?
Must be a secret.