By Pepper Parr
February 14th, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
An update on that Special Council meeting that took place immediately after Council adjourned from a Council meeting yesterday.
At the time Mayor Meed Ward said – “Wait a second, don’t go anywhere yet – we have to reset the room for a Special Council meeting.”
So we waited – nothing happened. I spoke to other media people who follow what Burlington City Council does.
We have no idea why this image appeared on our monitor. We didn’t like what we saw when we pressed Ctrl. Alt..Delete
All kinds of images appeared on the computer monitor – none of them made sense
We poked around and learned from a Council member that a meeting did take place and were told that:
Councillor Paul Sharman – explaining a view point.
“The last meeting was a procedural action. Nothing of any relevance, no decisions, no information shared, all legal.”
That wasn’t really an answer.
The meeting we are told did go into a CLOSED session
We would like to know which part of which Act was used to go into a CLOSED session, how long did the CLOSED session last and what was reported when they came out of CLOSED.
These are all parts of a process that ensures a City Council is transparent – this stuff matters – and when the procedures are not followed questions are raised.
Having Councillor Sharman say:
“It was a closed meeting, Pepper. No skating, no statement nothing else I can say. You could ask the question of the clerk who will provide an official response.”
That answer isn’t good enough either.
Marianne Meed Ward is on the other side of the podium this time – sits as the Council member for Ward 2 where a developer got a zoning change she opposed.
It bothers me that this Council chooses frequently to take a pass on the process. There are very good reasons for requiring every public meeting to be webcast. This Council pays lip service to doing everything they can to ensure that the people they serve are properly informed. The processes are there for a reason.
Don’t expect the Mayor to make a comment and explain what she did and why she did it. That is not the way she operates these days. What we hear today is not what she was saying in 2018 and 2022.
