Mayor does have Registry of who she meets with but there isn't the kind of transparency expected from Meed Ward.

By Pepper Parr

August 15th, 2020

BURLINGTON, ON

City Council ended a long work day on Thursday – starting at 9:30 am and adjourning at just after 10 pm that night.

They started out as a Standing Committee, rolled it over into a Meeting of Council and passed a number of significant bylaws.

There was an interesting debate on plans to create a Registry within which members of Council would let the public know who they have been meeting with.

Politicians at every level don’t particularly like Registry’s. Ward 2 Councillor Lisa Kearns has had one in place for some time.  She brought forward a Motion asking that there be a Registry that included every member of Council

During the debate Mayor Marianne Meed Ward said she has had a Register since the day she became Mayor.

Transparency was Meed Ward’s operative word before she was even elected to office.

That was a surprise to me – it was something I had never heard of before. With Mayor Meed Ward everything she does that is new and different is mentioned often. She sees and positions herself as a politician who is going to do things differently. She used the words accountability and transparency every time she delegated at Council as a citizen.

The Gazette reached out to the Mayor’s Communication staffer. Got a message that he was working from home.  Our message to the Communications Staffer was:

At the Standing Committee last night the Mayor said that she keeps a record of everyone she meets with along with minutes of the meeting and that that information is publicly available.

Can you tell me where that information is located?

Thank you

Shortly after we got an email from Suzanne Vukosavljevic, Manager of Communications, City Manager’s Office.  We did not reach out to Vukosavljevic – she appears to have been advised by the Mayor’s Communications Staffer that the Gazette was asking questions.

She responded:

Marianne Meed Ward after being sworn in as Mayor of Burlington

The Mayor’s Office maintains a record of meetings with developers, with minutes. They are not online but, as stated, available to the public upon request and can forward.

We responded asking for a link to the information.

Vukosavljevic replied:

Good afternoon Pepper,

The Mayor’s Office maintains a record of meetings with developers, with minutes. If there is interest in a particular meeting, we can forward those minutes. The only meetings that have taken place this year have been:

• Clearview – Adam Peaker, June 29
• Millcroft Golf Course – Frank Bon, Feb 6

Thanks, Suzanne

That is not quite good enough.  Where are the records?  Written up in a little black book?   Are they in a place where they can be accessed by people in the Mayor’s Office and changed?

During the debate the Mayor said the information was public and that it was online.

That isn’t the case.  It certainly isn’t transparent.

Politicians are judged by what they do – not what they say.

We applaud the Mayor recording her meetings and keeping minutes.

We would like to see the complete record of every meeting along with the minutes.  The public has a right to see everything not just what City Hall functionaries decide to make available.

In a conversation with a former Mayor of the City he said that anyone who wants to do something in the City meets with the Mayor.  “It all comes through the Mayor’s office” he said.

Of course it does and the Gazette wants a mayor who preaches accountability and transparency to practice what she preaches.

Salt with Pepper is the musings, reflections and opinions of the publisher of the Burlington Gazette, an online newspaper that was formed in 2010 and is a member of the National Newsmedia Council.