Were The Minutes As Adopted Correct????

By Robert Thomas

It may have been part of a secret portion of their meeting but whether or not Executive Committee allowed non - City staff to remain throughout the entire meeting is still not completely answered. The question comes as the minutes of the meeting were publicly released.

Additionally the meeting held in-camera makes secret the names of people who unsuccessfully applied to sit on Advisory Committees Of Council.

It all happened as part of their November 14, 2022 meeting when Executive Committee chose to go in-camera on eight separate issues.

At the start of the Executive Meeting there were a large number of guests - most were part of a large Moose Jaw Police Service contingent - who were allowed to remain at the meeting as they had business there.

The resultant minutes from the meeting show guests being allowed to be part of the meeting at the start but does not show when they entered or exited the meeting.

Most minutes from meetings show when - the time - people enter and exit meetings whereas the minutes from the in-camera confidential portion do not.

If it does not show this it means the people listed were there for the entire meeting.

At the media scrum following Council’s November 28th meeting - when the minutes from the November 14, 2022 Executive Meeting were reviewed and approved - MJ Independent asked if the minutes as approved were accurate.

And if they were accurate as unanimously passed by Council just moments earlier did it mean that some individuals were present at in-camera discussions they should not have been privy to?

“I don’t have the minutes handy and in front of me so let me take a look and get back to you,” city manager Jim Puffalt responded in the scrum.

He did say however the MJPS contingent did leave the meeting - despite the minutes not showing that occuring.

Asked why the City had moved the selection of citizens for advisory committees to Council to in-camera in Executive Committee why was there such a big secret surrounding who applied and their selection.

“There really is no big secret. I think what Council wants to do is if they have an opportunity, if they have heard something about the people who have put their names forward if there is some different information they want to be able to share that information,” Puffalt said.

Asked how that would fall under sections 15, 16 or 17 of the Freedom of Information and Privacy Act he said the committee selections are made on the basis of an employer - employee relationship.

“I think you need to take a look at it as more of a personnel related (issue). If there is some information about a community member that a Council member has and it is maybe something that shouldn’t be shared,” he said.

Pressed further that people appointed to Advisory Committees to Council are not personnel Puffalt said he understood “but if there is some information brought up about a person are you going to broadcast that across the community? It’s something that has been heard or maybe not even true so. I think you have to be careful here.”

At the present time the City does not provide a public list of people who have applied to sit on the various advisory committees - something they have done for years.

At this time in the news conference it was suggested MJ Independent send an email with the questions about the accuracy of the minutes adopted by Council from the November 14th, 2022 Executive Committee and whether or not is allowed under provincial legislation to keep the names and discussions about people who have applied to sit on Advisory Committees secret unless they are appointed.

The news conference moved on to other questions about the meeting.

EDITOR’S NOTE - After pointing out the concerns with the minutes MJ Independent the next day we held our regular quarterly conference call with friends in the Regina media where we asked if it was our role, as media, to send an email to try to get the minutes, if incorrect then corrected, as such the decision was made doing so was outside of the media’s role.

As a result no email was sent and we left it up to Administration to make any correction, if necessary, for the next meeting of Council to correct.