{"id":2675,"date":"2013-06-19T18:10:12","date_gmt":"2013-06-19T22:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=2675"},"modified":"2013-06-27T00:27:28","modified_gmt":"2013-06-27T04:27:28","slug":"question-of-confidentiality-raises-eyebrows-at-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/question-of-confidentiality-raises-eyebrows-at-council\/","title":{"rendered":"Question of confidentiality raises eyebrows at Council"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Before Councillors went into a closed session meeting last week to discuss the ins and outs of former mayor Phyllis Morris\u2019 $250,000 lawsuit against the Town of Aurora launched June 7, members had some hesitation discussing the matter while the cameras were not rolling.<\/p>\n

The concerns, argued by Councillors Paul Pirri and Evelyn Buck, where whether information discussed behind closed doors would ultimately stay behind closed doors. <\/p>\n

Councillor Pirri was first to voice his concerns, saying he didn\u2019t feel \u201ccomfortable\u201d going in-camera to discuss the latest lawsuit. <\/p>\n

\u201cI have grave concerns that what is being discussed in closed session is leaking out,\u201d he said. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t want other members of council to have a false sense of security on this matter. I think if we\u2019re going to be discussing this, discuss it in such a manner that Mr. Mar is here to stop us in saying anything that could be damaging to the municipality in case it does leak out.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response, Mayor Geoffrey Dawe said Councillor Pirri\u2019s concerns were \u201cvery serious\u201d and pressed for specifics. Councillor Pirri agreed at the severity, and said his concerns were passed on \u201cwhat has happened in the past\u201d, and his belief that what is said is leaving the confines of the closed room.<\/p>\n

Speaking to whether or not his report could be discussed in public, Mr. Mar said his preference is to always go into closed session when it concerns litigation or other legal matters. He added he would not be providing Council with any details regarding litigation advice, but simply what\u2019s next on the matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we are in open session, that will limit my conversation at this stage,\u201d he said. \u201c[In the open] I will answer questions to the best of my abilities if I feel comfortable with it, depending on how the nature of the conversation goes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Councillor Evelyn Buck, however, said she did not believe it was fair to put Mr. Mar in this position to answer to whether or not he could speak to discussions that might take place because he would have no idea of the questions that might be asked behind closed doors. Nevertheless, she said she shared Councillor Pirri\u2019s concerns about closed session confidentiality.<\/p>\n

\u201cI find myself between a rock and a hard place,\u201d she said of the origins of the lawsuit, which can be traced back to the now infamous closed session meeting in September 2010 which authorised Council to take \u201cany and all\u201d measures to address anonymous comments made on the Aurora Citizen blog which Ms. Morris claimed were defamatory. This decision ultimately lead to the aborted $6 million suit against three local bloggers, among others.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis problem started not in this [Council] term but in the previous term when matters that had no business being discussed by Council were taken behind closed doors [and] were none of the Town\u2019s business, yet were taken behind closed doors and decisions were made. We now have two Councillors who participated in making a decision, which, in my opinion, they had no authority to make.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are now part of the whole Council and I have no confidence that what gets discussed stays behind closed doors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of the three remaining Councillors left standing from the previous term, including Councillor Buck, only Councillors Wendy Gaertner and John Gallo participated in the September 2010 closed session. Although Councillor Buck did not mention any of her fellow Councillors by name, the implication was clear to Councillor Gaertner, who called a point of privilege to her comments.<\/p>\n

Mayor Geoffrey Dawe said Councillor Buck \u201cexpressed a general concern\u201d, but she disagreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe expressed a very specific concern that Councillors who were on the last Council and she therefore does not trust them to keep information confidential,\u201d said Councillor Gaertner. \u201cI find that completely insulting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been insulted many times, Mr. Mayor,\u201d said Councillor Buck to Mayor Geoffrey Dawe. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t have a solution to offer. I share Councillor Pirri\u2019s concerns.<\/p>\n

Mayor Dawe found in favour of Councillor Gaertner, saying that was not a comment for the table, but Councillor Gaertner pressed on, asking for an apology.<\/p>\n

\u201cCouncillor Buck, I feel, disparaged my character, my honour, and I want an apology,\u201d she said. \u201cThat question cannot just be left like that.\u201d
\nMayor Dawe once again found in favour of Councillor Gaertner and, with Councillor Buck refusing to apologise or withdraw her words, was not recognized for the rest of the evening. She had one parting comment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere isn\u2019t any neat and tidy way of stating what my concern is and it is not a reflection on Councillor Gaertner\u2019s integrity,\u201d she said. \u201cThey made a decision, they stuck with a decision, they persistently have held to that decision. We have gone in a different direction. It is a concern I have. I am certainly not going to apologise for being concerned.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Before Councillors went into a closed session meeting last week to discuss the ins and outs of former mayor Phyllis Morris\u2019 $250,000 lawsuit against the Town of Aurora launched June 7, members had some hesitation discussing the matter while the cameras were not rolling.<\/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":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-H9","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-02 11:38:27","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\/2675","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=2675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2675\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}