While the majority of the first meeting of the Ad Hoc Budget Committee was held in closed session, committee chair Coun. Norman Mann used the short open portion to express openness to public input.
The Ad Hoc Budget Committee held their first meeting of the 2024 budget planning process yesterday afternoon at city hall. Because of the topics discussed, the approximately two-hour long meeting was conducted almost entirely in closed session.
The committee includes all members of council, and all were in attendance. Also attending were Interim CAO Rob deBortoli and Director of Finance and Treasurer Amy Sonnenburg.
Committee chair, Councillor Norman Mann opened the inaugural meeting, “Welcome everyone to the beginning process of the 2024 ad hoc budget process.” The agenda contained two main items of business: city management compensation; unionized labour compensation.
The ad hoc budget committee works with staff to create a proposed budget for council’s approval. They meet approximately a half-dozen times on an 'as required' schedule. And the committee is disbanded when the annual budget is approved by council.
Mann noted that section 239 of the Municipal Act permits closed session discussions of “labour relations or employee negotiations, as well as labour relations information which, if disclosed, could reasonably be expected to prejudice significantly, the contractual negotiations of a person, group, or group of persons or organization.”
The criteria fit the two items of business and the committee voted to go into closed session.
Closed sessions present an ‘optics problem’ for council because it can appear to lack transparency, a problem which Mann addressed.
“As we have discussed in the past, typically, we try to have the majority of our conversations regarding the budget in open session. However, there are times, very limited, that we do go into closed and these, obviously, are both reasons for going into closed,” he said.
When the committee returned to the council chamber from the closed session, Mann told the public, "We discussed our two matters in closed, and there are no reports at this point. Direction has been provided to staff."
Mann used the opening and closing meeting minutes to express openness to public input.
“Through the [ad hoc budget] process, we will definitely be having some public input and that will be encouraged,” he said in the opening minutes.
And upon return from the closed session, he said, “We will advise the community once we have a date. At this point, we haven’t scheduled anything."
"Staff have information to prepare back to the committee. We can set up a schedule and go from there.”