Not an April Fool's joke, but memorable for how this took place at the Monday April 1st Oshawa Community Services Committee morning meeting:
The confidential Report on the meeting's Agenda regarding "a Memorandum of Understanding between the City of Oshawa and the Humane Society of Durham Region" was a surprise to me and some of the other Oshawa Councillors in attendance. I am not a member of that Committee but was attending as a 'visiting Councillor'. Although I could ask questions and did, I am not permitted the voting rights that I have on the two other Oshawa Standing Committees that I do sit on.
Confidential Report CS-19-31 was described in the meeting Agenda as a matter "concerning a proposed agreement between Oshawa Animal Services and the Humane Society of Durham Region".
Discussion of this Report can be found at the 30 minute mark on the City's archived webstream of the meeting.
When four Councillors, two on the Committee (John Neal and John Gray) and two visiting Councillors (Brian Nicholson and me) expressed concerns about the process and lack of openness, the City's Director of Human Resources explained there were confidential matters related to labour relations that required the report to be discussed in closed session.
The committee went into closed session and returned to open session.
When I became aware there were members of the Humane Society of Durham Region among those in attendance I asked the Chair if they could come forward to answer questions and provide information that hadn't been made available to some Oshawa Councillors.
At the end of the meeting's question and answer session Councillor Giberson read his prepared motion "that Report CS-19-31 be referred back to staff for further information and to produce a version of the Report for public consumption".
Councillor Neal asked what Councillor Giberson meant by public consumption - if there would be two Reports, one for the public and one in camera. Councillor Giberson clarified that it would be a Report that does not include labour relations or employment negotiations and the intent was that "members of the public will be able to request to speak as delegations to matters on that Agenda".
A video clip from the meeting can be watched below:
The confidential Report on the meeting's Agenda regarding "a Memorandum of Understanding between the City of Oshawa and the Humane Society of Durham Region" was a surprise to me and some of the other Oshawa Councillors in attendance. I am not a member of that Committee but was attending as a 'visiting Councillor'. Although I could ask questions and did, I am not permitted the voting rights that I have on the two other Oshawa Standing Committees that I do sit on.
Confidential Report CS-19-31 was described in the meeting Agenda as a matter "concerning a proposed agreement between Oshawa Animal Services and the Humane Society of Durham Region".
Discussion of this Report can be found at the 30 minute mark on the City's archived webstream of the meeting.
When four Councillors, two on the Committee (John Neal and John Gray) and two visiting Councillors (Brian Nicholson and me) expressed concerns about the process and lack of openness, the City's Director of Human Resources explained there were confidential matters related to labour relations that required the report to be discussed in closed session.
The committee went into closed session and returned to open session.
When I became aware there were members of the Humane Society of Durham Region among those in attendance I asked the Chair if they could come forward to answer questions and provide information that hadn't been made available to some Oshawa Councillors.
At the end of the meeting's question and answer session Councillor Giberson read his prepared motion "that Report CS-19-31 be referred back to staff for further information and to produce a version of the Report for public consumption".
Councillor Neal asked what Councillor Giberson meant by public consumption - if there would be two Reports, one for the public and one in camera. Councillor Giberson clarified that it would be a Report that does not include labour relations or employment negotiations and the intent was that "members of the public will be able to request to speak as delegations to matters on that Agenda".
A video clip from the meeting can be watched below: