Accountability and Transparency
At our last Committee of the Whole meeting, there was some lengthy debate over a recommendation regarding the posting of recorded votes on our website. At the present time, all minutes from Committee of the Whole and Council are available to view through our website. If a recorded vote is called on an issue, it will show in the minutes of that meeting. Council meetings are the only place that recorded votes will be shown, as according to the Municipal Act. As Council, is where we ratify all of our Committee of the Whole meetings than, an item that wishes to be recorded will be pulled at Council to vote on separately.
Generally, I have found when speaking with individuals about this is that if someone is interested in an issue, they will look up that issue in the minutes of the meeting. For example, budget deliberations or the decision on the Old Town Hall. If the vote was asked to be recorded, they would see it there. I haven’t had anyone say to me they want to see the recorded votes only. That being said, I think that residents perhaps would like to see how we vote on everything as a whole.
Staff did look at implementing a system to do just that, show all voting. When they looked at our system and did some testing they found it onerous to operate. The steps between the speakers waiting software to the voting results software involved a number of steps. Discussions are taking place to overhaul the conference software so that in the near future it can work efficiently.
Because of these reasons, I decided that I would like to see all votes showing, not just the ones called for regarding a particular issue. I, myself, have indicated my voting record on all decisions since the beginning of the term and felt this would best suit the residents as the recorded votes are actually still on our Council minutes. I have also indicated on my website the recorded votes with the issue beside.
You may feel differently and I wanted to put it out to my residents for comment.
Please let me know how you feel prior to our Council Meeting Monday night by taking the survey below.
