File photo (Image credit: CFJC Today).

By Mel Rothenburger

ARMCHAIR MAYOR

ROTHENBURGER: Shhh, you may not talk at committee-of-the-whole meetings

Nov 29, 2023 | 5:55 AM

THE TAX INCREASE was on the agenda for discussion at a City council committee-of-the-whole meeting yesterday.

But if you’d been hoping to attend the three-hour meeting and ask questions about it, you’d have been out of luck. Same for other items on the agenda — the cultural strategic plan and a report from the parks engagement group.

The committee of the whole, which consists of all council members, is designed as a place where important stuff can be talked about in depth.

Talked about by council members only, that is. The public can attend but the public can’t talk because a new procedural bylaw doesn’t provide for anywhere on COTW agendas for public inquiries.

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Former councillor Denis Walsh pointed this out at one of council’s regular meetings when the bylaw came up for adoption, noting that while COTW agendas do include a “civil discourse” statement there’s no opportunity for public discoursing.

After hearing Walsh speak, Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson made a motion that a Public Inquiries section be added to committee of the whole agendas. But Coun. Nancy Bepple argued that any changes to the bylaw should be referred to a committee for study.

Council, she said, shouldn’t make changes to the wording “on the fly.”

So, council passed the new agenda format as it was, with Walsh’s suggestion to be dealt with at some point in the coming year.

This is where councillors just doesn’t get it. They badly want to be known as “bold” but this is anything but bold. Surely, allowing public to ask questions at meetings held by council is a desirable thing. Who would argue against it?

So why not just fix it now instead of sending it off to committee? It would have required delaying the bylaw process for a meeting or two but that would have gotten the job done a lot sooner rather than much, much later — if it gets done at all.

I’m Mel Rothenburger, the Armchair Mayor.

Mel Rothenburger is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.