{"id":10680,"date":"2015-05-13T17:41:39","date_gmt":"2015-05-13T21:41:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=10680"},"modified":"2015-05-13T17:41:39","modified_gmt":"2015-05-13T21:41:39","slug":"audio-recording-nixed-for-closed-session-meetings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/audio-recording-nixed-for-closed-session-meetings\/","title":{"rendered":"Audio recording nixed for closed session meetings"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Council has nixed a suggestion to audio record their closed session meetings, despite support from members of Council who believe it\u2019s a move that would avoid trouble down the road.<\/p>\n

The suggestion to audio record closed session meetings was made in the last term of Council following the controversy and several court trials that arose from decisions stemming from one particular closed session meeting in September 2010. <\/p>\n

Spurring forward the suggestion was a report from the Ontario Ombudsman calling on audio and video recording to assist him in closed meeting investigations. But, according to Warren Mar, Aurora\u2019s Town Solicitor, the necessary legal protections in place in the United States do not have an equivalent in Ontario, and recording such meetings could pose their own risks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Ombudsman is [in favour of this] but what I think he fails to notice or recommend is the legislation in American jurisdictions,\u201d said Mr. Mar at last week\u2019s General Committee meeting. \u201cRight now there is nothing stopping an opposing side in the middle of potential litigation asking for those recordings and we would have to defend that. We might not be able to prevent the entire recording from being disclosed.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the concerns we do have is without that protection, it does not put the Town at risk and the Province did have an opportunity in enacting [legislation] to move forward in that direction to require municipalities to do so and provide the proper legal protections and they didn\u2019t do any of those things. The biggest reward [we see with this] is it makes the Ombudsman\u2019s life easier. It doesn\u2019t make the Town\u2019s life easier. It allows him to go and review the audio-video recordings so that way he doesn\u2019t have to talk [to everyone] individually, then he can go about his business. In this case, we\u2019re not here to do the ombudsman\u2019s job for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Council typically goes into closed session to discuss sensitive matters, including litigation, potential land deals, and matters relating to \u201can identifiable individual.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the majority of Council, Mr. Mar\u2019s legal opinion was reason enough to vote against Councillor Tom Mrakas\u2019 motion to go forward with the recordings, and a subsequent move floated Monday night by Councillor Michael Thompson to move forward with the recordings, along with recommended protocols that could be put in place for the \u201caccess, retention and destruction\u201d of the records.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will follow the good advice of our solicitor,\u201d said Mayor Geoff Dawe.<\/p>\n

This was a view supported by Councillor John Abel.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to put our Town at risk,\u201d he said. \u201cWhy would we go and be frontiersman and put the Town at risk when no one else is doing it, the Province isn\u2019t supporting you, and we have practices that are working perfectly well for us just as they do in 442 other municipalities.\u201d
\n12 municipalities doing so was not good enough reason for him to move forward. <\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t put our residents at risk because I want to see a higher standard,\u201d he concluded. \u201dIt is not the right thing [to put them at risk], to cost them money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Had the legislative supports been available from the Province, Councillor Paul Pirri said he would have voted to move in this direction.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think at this point in time, until we have the proper policies in place from the provincial government, to me it is irresponsible if we move forward in this manner,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is important the second the Province comes forward with the regulations\u2026we should jump on this right away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the most vocal proponents of moving forward with the recording at this point in time were Councillors Wendy Gaertner and Thompson. Councillor Gaertner was on Council during the controversial 2010 closed session meeting which ultimately resulted in then-mayor Phyllis Morris launching a lawsuit against three local bloggers who she said she felt defamed her.<\/p>\n

Having a recording of that meeting could have avoided many questions, said Councillor Gaertner.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe notes that are taken in closed session are very circumspect and it all depends on who is taking the notes,\u201d she said at the Committee level. \u201cThey really only tell a little part of the story. Had we had closed session recordings \u2013 and it is a long time coming \u2013 I think it would protect the town. I think this is important for accessibility, transparency, and to get the real story on something.\u201d<\/p>\n

A similar view was offered by Councillor Thompson.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember back in 2010 and 2011, comments from current Councillors at that time wanting to know what really happened in closed session that night when the Town agreed to sue residents,\u201d he said. \u201cThere was considerable cost and damage to the Town as a result of not having a clear and concise record of what transpired, in my opinion. We have a responsibility to be a leader. There is a lot of things we\u2019re waiting for the Province [on, but] we can be an agent for change.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have the utmost respect for the solicitor and I always weighed his advice. In this case, I am weighing what I believe to be in the public\u2019s best interest versus what is in the Town\u2019s best interest and I weigh the two. We do that all the time. A lot has been made about risk, but we deal with risk every day. There are residents that say, why do we have a skate board park? The Town is at risk of someone hurting themselves. If we are going to manage the Town based on risk alone, then there\u2019s an issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the motion was ultimately defeated, Council voted in favour of a motion from Councillor Pirri calling on Mayor Dawe to write to Premier Kathleen Wynne and MPP Chris Ballard urging for the development of this legislative framework.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Council has nixed a suggestion to audio record their closed session meetings, despite support from members of Council who believe it\u2019s a move that would avoid trouble down the road.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-2Mg","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-03 09:29:34","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10680\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}