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Some McKellar residents concerned with number of council’s closed sessions

'The public has a right to know at least the general nature of the reason for the closed meeting'
2020 mckellar sign turl
McKellar. Jeff Turl/BayToday.

The Township of McKellar has had 16 closed meetings since June 2020, and some McKellar ratepayers say that’s ridiculous. 

McKellar Free Speech founding member David Moore posted on Dec. 29 that the latest public notice for a  closed session scheduled for Dec. 30 was generic and provided little information. 

“(Council) has reduced their ‘public’ meetings to once a month but they have increased their ‘special’ — many of them closed — meetings to who knows how many,” wrote Moore, asking if this was the new way of doing municipal business COVID or no COVID. 

The post received traction by several members. 

Reg Moore, another McKellar ratepayer, said he thought the very least council could do is pass a resolution out of closed session that was not generic. 

“(It) gives the taxpayers some idea of what the closed session was for,” said Moore. 

All closed session meetings must begin in an open council session and end in an open session in accordance with the municipal act. 

“If you look over the (past) months,” said Moore. “The council  resolutions going into closed session and coming out of closed session  are almost identical with very little information on the actual subject  matter of the closed session.” 

According to Ted Davidson, who joined in on the conversation online,  the Ontario Ombudsman has ruled in other cases that reciting only the provision of the municipal act is not sufficient notice to the public. 

“The public has a right to know at least the general nature of the reason for the closed meeting …,” said Davidson. “There are more special  meetings with 24-hour notice than there are regular meetings.” 

“Closed meetings must adhere to the strict provisions of the  municipal act … minutes are to be taken of the closed session with audio  recordings strongly recommended.” 

McKellar acting clerk, Michelle Hendry, says that the reason meetings are closed to the public is because sensitive legal and personnel matters are being discussed. 

Municipal Act: Section 239 provides the rules the clerk's office uses for determining if an item for discussion can be in a closed session. 

“The rules are prescriptive and rigid, as they should be, to ensure transparency in municipal government,” wrote Hendry. “The clerk’s job is  to ensure the municipal act is followed in this regard.”

Sarah Cooke’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.