Centre Wellington council finally got to meet an employee March 30 that it had hired last year.
Meeting investigator Norm Gamble attended the committee of the whole meeting to introduce himself to councillors and find the results of his request for a retainer fee.
Clerk Marion Morris introduced Gamble, and explained the reason for the retainer request.
“It was new legislation, and we did not anticipate additional responsibilities and duties,” she said.
Gamble is one of a number of meeting investigators hired across the province after provincial legislation required each municipality have someone to adjudicate complaints about meeting procedures.
Gamble was hired by Wellington County council and most lower tier municipalities also hired him.
“What we found is, the public is just getting used to the intent” of the legislation, Gamble explained. “The public thought it was an integrity commissioner” that was being hired.
Gamble explained most of the calls he received were complaints not about a council’s meeting process, but about its decisions.
“My role was not to examine your decision, but your process,” he explained.
He said what often happens is council meets in a closed session for a specific purpose, but, having disposed of its legal business, someone brings up another issue that is supposed to be discussed in open session. That is one way to run afoul of the legislation.
“Councils are now looking at how and why” they are meeting behind closed doors, he said.
Gamble added that he received only one call from Centre Wellington in his first year, and that, too, was a complaint about a decision, and not the process.
But he called that “good News. A position like mine, you don’t want me to be too active.”
He added that he has found Centre Wellington’s staff is “just as knowledgeable as I am” about the legislation.
Council then considered Gamble’s request for a retainer for the year and approved $200 per year, with only councillor Bob Foster opposed.
Councillors Fred Morris and Ron Hallman were absent.
