{"id":15885,"date":"2016-11-24T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-11-24T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=15885"},"modified":"2016-11-24T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-11-24T17:00:00","slug":"streamlined-council-meetings-will-increase-public-understanding-participation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/streamlined-council-meetings-will-increase-public-understanding-participation\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cStreamlined\u201d Council meetings will increase public understanding, participation"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

A new \u201cstreamlined\u201d Council format, complete with an earlier start time will provide Aurorans with more opportunities to become engaged in the decisions that impact them.
\nCouncil is due to approve a new procedural bylaw this week which will implement several changes to the standard format of Council and Committee meetings starting in the beginning of 2017.
\nThese include the use of \u201cplain language\u201d on Council agendas and reports so members of the public better understand the impact of the decisions that are due to be made, and giving citizens further opportunities to participate in the process.
\nThe changes were outlined at last week\u2019s General Committee meeting by Town Clerk Lisa Lyons. The presentation was the culmination of several months of review by Council members and staff looking at how to find \u201cefficiencies\u201d in the way meetings are conducted.
\nShould the changes be approved at Council this week, agendas in the new year will be divided up between items on a \u201cconsent agenda\u201d for items which are only included for Council information, and items earmarked for Council direction, eliminating the need for Council members to pull each item separately for discussion.
\nBefore this even gets underway, however, meetings will soon begin each Tuesday at 6.45 p.m., with this first 15 minutes turned over to members of the public to speak to Council on the issues that matter to them before the formal meeting gets underway at 7 p.m. Currently, meetings begin at 7 p.m., with the first portion of the evening devoted to Open Forum.
\n\u201cWe have taken a plain language approach to ensure the bylaw is clear to the average reader while providing sufficient administrative detail and context,\u201d said Ms. Lyons. \u201cIn the draft procedural bylaw, generally all Closed Session meetings (meetings held out of the public) will be Council meetings\u2026on every Tuesday before General Committee and Council if required.
\n\u201cThe earlier start time will provide for earlier reporting out to the public and an earlier end time for regular meetings that follow. In order to provide transparency, a report on items that were discussed in Closed Session, but are no longer required to remain confidential, will be provided to the public on an annual basis.\u201d
\nMembers of the public will also have a handy way of knowing how each of their elected representatives vote on each issue. Currently, votes are only recorded by member if specifically requested by the Mayor or a Councillor during the course of a Council discussion.
\nThis system will be a thing of the past as Council moves to implement a new voting system in the New Year which will record every vote taken with the click of a button. The results will then be documented on the Town\u2019s website and in the minutes of every meeting.
\nThe electronic voting system is planned to be operational by the January 24 meeting following audio-visual upgrades to the Chamber during the holiday recess.
\nThe draft changes were generally supported at the Committee level last week, with Councillors only suggesting minor revisions. Among them was changing the start time of Closed Session meetings from a proposed 5.30 p.m. start time to 5.45 p.m. to allow Council members who have day jobs a better chance of getting to the meetings in less of a crunch. However, concerns still remain on whether this will allow sufficient time for Closed Session items to be discussed before Open Forum convenes just an hour later.
\nA further suggestion from Councillor Paul Pirri to limit Budget deliberations to Saturdays away from the current system blending Monday evening discussions with similar talks in all-day sessions on Saturdays and Mondays was rejected by the Committee.
\nDaytime sessions on Monday, he said, are particularly tough to make, but others said they saw the value of keeping the status quo.
\n\u201cWe always strive to give people more opportunities to attend our meetings,\u201d said Councillor Michael Thompson. \u201cWe have them on weekends, we have them on the evenings, and we have them during the weekday so that whenever some of the residents\u2019 own personal schedules there is an opportunity. I certainly hear from some members it is a challenge to balance work life, Council life and what is associated with it, but I can\u2019t support [the change]. I do believe midday is also an important part of the budget process.\u201d
\nThe suggestion, however, found favour with Councillors Jeff Thom and Tom Mrakas.
\n\u201cLast year I had to miss [a meeting] and it is unfortunate because you all want to have your say and participate in the process, but because it is a part-time position you have to take into account your work obligations,\u201d said Councillor Thom. \u201cTypically it is fine, but when you have something blow up at the last minute and you can\u2019t attend, it puts us in an awkward position. I feel most people can make Saturdays, Council and members of the public.\u201d
\nAdded Councillor Mrakas: \u201cI think it is important that all nine of us were sitting here when we\u2019re discussing the budget. Even if we\u2019re missing just one person, that doesn\u2019t give them the opportunity to speak on behalf of the residents they represent. If that means we have to do it on a Saturday to make sure all of us are here, then I am in favour of that.\u201d
\nThe amendment to do away with Monday budget meetings failed on a tie vote of 4 \u2013 4 with Councillor Wendy Gaertner unable to attend last week\u2019s Committee meeting. The matter is up for further deliberation this week.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new \u201cstreamlined\u201d Council format, complete with an earlier start time will provide Aurorans with more opportunities to become engaged in the decisions that impact them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_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}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15885","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\/p3D2k4-48d","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 01:58:30","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\/15885","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=15885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15885\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}