Marin: instead of transparency, still too much secrecy

(Updated) Ontario’s ombudsman released a report today that finds many municipalities are having unrecorded, inappropriate closed door meetings and they’re breaking the law by their secrecy. Hamilton was mentioned as one of the cities that isn’t transparent enough. However Mayor Bob Bratina says the public needs to know that when the city has closed door meetings, it is to protect the taxpayer.

“A closed door meeting is intended to be attended by only those invited. If you record it that’s going to make it available to those not invited to the meeting or shouldn’t have been in the meeting.”

Bratina couldn’t tell CHCH News how many closed door meetings there are in a year but one was held today. Voices that are usually heard on the speakers throughout city hall transmitted white noise instead.

Councillor Sam Merulla says the city has lawyers who advise them when to have a closed door meeting. For example, when the city’s buying property or when addressing allegations against a person. “Anything we’d have in camera is related to things that can expose us to liability. In essence we’re trying to protect the taxpayer by going in camera but sometimes in the past we’ve been overly conservative as to how often we go in camera.”

Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin says muncipalities are sometimes ignorant of the law when it comes to closed door meetings. “There are standards of transparency we expect our officials to meet every day and they should face consequences when they fail.”

Municipal affairs minister Linda Jeffrey disagrees. “I think we have a fairly good system right now with regards to closed meetings.”

Marin says he gets about 20,000 complaints a year about municipal closed door meetings but complaints doubled this year. He says he’s going to talk to the premier next month about putting more teeth into the law that says all municipal meetings should be public or at the very least recorded.

“Hanky panky continues to take place in the back rooms and the councils continue to cling to the cloak and dagger old school politics and that’s what we’re trying to discourage.”