Council opens up monthly discussion meetings

In another move towards greater transparency, members of Sackville town council have decided to open up their monthly discussion meetings to the public saying they have nothing to hide.
"We're constantly getting a lot of information behind closed doors," said Coun. Margaret Tusz-King, who introduced the motion last week to open up the monthly sessions. "And so I propose we have our discussion group meetings open to the public so they will know the issues we're talking about and the questions we're asking."
Tusz-King explained that, according to the provincial Municipalities Act, issues surrounding legal, personnel and land matters are subject to privacy laws but anything else can be brought to the table during public sessions.
Up until now, council's discussion meetings have been regularly closed to the public but the upcoming meetings on May 4 and June 1 will be opened up, with town staff looking into how it can change its procedural bylaw to allow local residents access to all future discussion meetings.
Advanced notification of topics to be discussed during the Monday night meetings will be posted on the town's website.
Deputy Mayor Bob Berry, who voted against the motion to open up the meetings, said he would rather let the town's bylaw committee review whether council should make the meetings public and wait for them to come back with a recommendation
"I think this is too quick," said Berry.
He said he doesn't have a problem with allowing the public into the meetings but did raise concerns over the possible length of the sessions should there be a number of questions from residents.
"If you have too many items on the agenda, you're going to be there all night," said Berry.
Councillors Bruce Phinney and Joyce O'Neil also voted against the motion, stating they were also worried about the time crunch and questioned whether they would be able to get as much done during the open meetings.
But Coun. Merrill Fullerton justified the move, stating that talk of opening up the discussion meetings has been on the table since the new council took office following last year's municipal elections.
"I think it's time we deal with this. There are easy measures that can be put in place to do this; if we need to go into a committee-of-the-whole session (to discuss private matters), then that's what's we'll have to do."