City council believes it has struck a compromise in the contentious issue of summer meeting hours.
As reported first in BayToday, Coun. Jeff Serran tabled a rescission of his summer schedule motion, seconded by Coun. Derek Shogren, to rescind the July 11 move to begin committee meetings at 6 p.m., followed immediately by regular meetings of council.
In the two weeks since the original motion, CogecoTV has pulled its live coverage of council meetings, unable to accommodate any start earlier than 6:30 p.m. as that would interfere with their nightly news program.
CogecoTV cameras were not in their usual places in council chambers Monday for live coverage as Serran spoke of a "compromise" to come at the August 8 regular council meeting. But with no live coverage Monday, and start times uncertain for the rest of the summer, it could be well into August before citizens are able to watch a live broadcast.
After Labour Day, the summer schedule typically switches back to a format that sees a committee meeting Monday at 7 p.m., with a regular council meeting at the same time the following Monday.
After City Clerk Karen McIsaac read the rescission motion "Whereas Council inadvertently made it harder for CogecoTV to cover Council meetings during the summer schedule," Serran had his turn to speak to the thought process behind the original motion.
"Bringing this motion forward is a compromise. I stand by the original motion. We need to find efficiencies and ways that we can streamline," said Serran.
He also reminded his fellow councillors that the original motion passed with their complicity (with only Coun. King dissenting).
Serran maintains that there was a misunderstanding between him and CogecoTV Station Manager Joey Roussy regarding potential earlier start times for live broadcasts.
Coun. Mike Anthony, who seconded the contentious July 11 motion said, "the original intention was to eliminate downtime between meetings, but if something impedes the public's access to meetings, I believe we have to fix it."
Anthony also explained that the misunderstanding between the parties involved the ability to go to tape delay when needed, a statement that Deputy Mayor Sheldon Forgette agreed with. "This wasn't to harm CogecoTV in any way. We understood that a delayed playback" was possible, said Forgette.
"A compromise will save the taxpayers money, because we do have staff here paid hourly, but we can also have live coverage" for the public, noted Forgette.
"There was no malice to our media partners," said Serran, before requesting a recorded vote. The motion passed, 9-1, with Coun. Bain absent, and Coun. Vaillancourt opposed.
