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economist sunsunlribune news saturday nov 82003 19 governing behind by simone joseph staff writer evelina maceachern noticed a disturbing phenomenon in her early days on aurora council during incamera meetings which are closed to the public coun cillors tried to introduce matters that were supposed to be public someone would say while were here and bring up a new item that didnt qualify for incamera she said theres no accountability when you are incamera theres no one to watch what you are doing councillors stopped trying to bring up public matters in private when ms maceachern and other councillors repeatedly demanded they go back into public session she said toronto inquiry the openness and accountabili ty of politicians has become a hot issue in recent months with torontos mfp computer leasing iriquiry and reports of former pre mier ernie eves making decisions in informal meetings without input from cabinet v the issue of government open ness has also been brought to the forefront by a report from the provinces information and privacy cominissioner last month which argues ontario heeds an open meetings law i the report points to the united states where federal and state gov ernments guarantee with few exceptions that the public can attend meetings of public bodies including municipal governments council meetings can be the scene of important public debate because that is where decisions are made on everything from develop ment to traffic calming to bus fares the commissioners report making municipal government more accountable the need for an open meetings law in ontario rec ommends providing a precise definition of a meeting because sometimes councils hold informal meetings without public notice requiring municipalities to give the public proper and ade quate notice of each council and board meeting prohibiting councils from con sidering business not included on a published notice creating an overseeingbody to hear complaints of open meeting rules not being followed today if citizens have complaints they have to take them to the supreme court which can be costly and timecon suming and introducing remedies and penalties while there are guidelines for meetings within the municipal- act ontario does not have a separate open meetings law councils are allowed to go into closed session for various reasons including issues concerning legal proceedings or a lawsuit the proposed land sales labour relations negotiations and personnel matters according to the municipal act pamela courtot ndp candidate complained about whitchurch- stouffville council moving from evening to afternoon meetings aurora council receives advice from its clerk chief adrninistrative officer and lawyer on when discus sions should be incamera mayor tim jones says but ms maceachern still believes it is too easy for politicians to have discussions behind closed doors she points to the example of an oct 21 aurora committee meet ing parts of which were to be held incamera councillors had to con sider advice a lawyer had given the town on how to apply the oak ridges moraine conservation act to hundreds of acres of land aurora staff suggested the matter be considered in a closed session ms maceachern was indignant i didnt feel it was a legal matter i felt it was a political decision and that there had been no debate on it if it was held incamera the public wouldnt have had the bene fit of this discussion and knowing how or why we made our decision after ms maceacherns protests the discussion was brought into the open and aurora politicians opted to protect the area but mr jones still believes the debate should have been held behind closed doors any time council risks the threat of litigation you go and dis cuss it in camera so as not to show your hand to those who may or may not want to litigate while the commissioners report does not suggest clarifying the cri teria for closeddoor meetings it does suggest boards or councils should not be allowed to slip items into the agenda at the last minute banning lastminute additions is an action elvira caria supports the cochairperson of the vellore woods ratepayers association says lastminute addi tions have appeared on vaughan agendas in cases where she did not see the urgency of adding them unless the public showed up that day they wouldnt have known it was added she said the head of another vaughan cit izens group believes council has too often kept residents in the dark dur ing discussions about a new city hall specifically the decision not to use the vaughan corporate centre in the hwy 7jane street area there was no way the average resident that was coming to council could have known they were going to remove the corporate centre as one of the sites perhaps they councillors could have voted after they heard what people had to say said paul de buono who formed vaughan watch in january to encourage city hall to be more up front with the public building at the corporate centre would have attracted businesses so ruling it out could have major financial repercussions he said mr de buono pointed out a kpmg report evaluating the citys options was kept private until resist dents lobbied for it to be released vaughan mayor michael di biase says most of councils meet ings were public except when the city had to talk about private mat ters such asland values council already open as for the report council held it back on the advice of a lawyer he said adding stricter openness legis lation is not necessary the timing of a meeting can also shut out the public said pamela courtot a stouffville resident and ndp candidate for oak ridges in the provincial election in a letter to the editor of the stouffville suntribune shepointed put council had moved all meetings from the evening to the afternoon meetings were held at 7 pm before 1999 when they were changed to 3 pm when residents cant attend its either deliberate or dowm right stupid it fails to recognize the importance the public 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