An almost total cock up on the part of the Clerks office - they will refer to it as a 'learning moment'

News 100 redBy Pepper Parr

April 10th, 2018

BURLINGTON, ON

 

Back to the way the city administration communicates with the people that pay their salaries. A very controversial item was due to be put before city council – the Section 37 agreement with the developers of the 23 storey tower approved by city council.

421 Brant

How does a development that has some merit manage to get so much undesirable publicity?

Many people were not aware that the item had been placed on the Agenda of a Planning and Development meeting for this evening.

A resident who is particularly good at digging out information and some of the ECoB people were able to find the mention of an item that was added to the agenda – the added item doesn’t appear on the actual agenda – confusing? – Welcome to the world of municipal government.

Ward 2 Councillor Marianne Meed Ward explained that she too had difficulty finding the agenda item – and she uses the city calendar feature regularly and urges people to use it.

Here is what Meed Ward had to say about access to notice of an item on a meeting agenda:

Meed Ward H&S

Ward 2 Councillor Marianne Meed Ward is expected to ask city council to defer hearing the Planning until the public has been given adequate notice.

“I have received multiple emails from residents who were not able to find the Section 37 item on the Agenda for tonight’s meeting.

“I myself couldn’t find it initially after I was told it had been posted and spoke to clerks. (I am paperless, so rely exclusively on the electronic record for my agendas and reports). They showed me where to find addendum items – these are items that are released late, after the agenda for the meeting is already published.

“But without that knowledge gained speaking to clerks, I wouldn’t have found it, and it’s not where the public would think to look.”

Meed Ward is apparently going to ask council to defer this item until the public has been properly notified and made aware of the item being on an agenda.

What Meed Ward hasn’t said so far is where she stands on the Section 37 agreement the Planning department is passing along to council for approval.

Related news stories:

Muir hammers city council.

It was the late Paul Newman who once said in a riveting movie: What we have here is a failure to communicate.

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3 comments to An almost total cock up on the part of the Clerks office – they will refer to it as a ‘learning moment’

  • Lynn Crosby

    This will get tricky, as they can’t blame this on decades of prior councillors, or the province, or the OMB, or the old OP, or the usual things some council members and staff seem to blame these days. It will simply be on them. Will they put the date back to the original date as requested by the public or won’t they? Of course, even if they do, the fact this happened at all will be remembered.

    The people who did the digging and found this, and then raised the alarm are to be commended, but certainly citizens shouldn’t have to go through this much time and effort on a daily basis to keep track of what is happening at our city hall, especially on such an important issue on which they know people are trying to be kept informed and want to give input.

  • steve

    Close, but it was the warden who said to Newman; “what we’ve got here is, failure to communicate. A classic line in a classic movie.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=452XjnaHr1A

    Editor’s note:
    What I love about he Gazette readers is the depth of their knowledge – thank you for the correction

  • Penny

    I want to publicly thank Marianne Meed Ward for agreeing to bring a motion to the floor tonight to defer the discussion on the Section 37- Community Benefits related to the approval of the 421 Brant Street development application.

    Let’s hope that the Mayor and the other councillors see merit in passing this motion. Failure to do so will definitely be an indication if public engagement really is important to this council.