DOCUMENT 1
Report to Council of the City of Ottawa –
2011 Annual Report
The position of Meeting Investigator was established by Council in November
2007 in response to recent changes in provincial legislation enacted under the
general heading of “accountability and transparency”. The legislation required
that, subject to certain limited exceptions, all municipal business be
conducted in public. It also provided for the appointment of a person or body,
independent of the municipality, to investigate any complaint by members of the
public that Council breached the prescribed rules respecting open
meetings.
During the first three years of my term as the City’s Meeting
Investigator, I received 19 requests for investigation. Five of these requests were dismissed as
falling outside my jurisdiction. The
remainder resulted in full investigations and reports to Council. All reports
to Council contained recommendations to improve the procedure followed by
Council or its committees. I am pleased
to report that all recommendations received serious consideration by Council
and most resulted in changes in the procedure followed when going in camera.
The improvement in procedures brought about during my first term as
Meeting Investigator, coupled with an increased awareness of the type of
problems which might be encountered when going in camera, has resulted in the following:
(a) Fewer in camera meetings
Council only resolved to go in camera
on five occasions in 2011. Further, only three of the ten Committees
reviewed by the Meeting Investigator held any part of their meetings in camera.
(b) Less time spent in camera.
Council spent less than four hours considering business behind closed
doors in 2011. The ten Committees reviewed conducted in camera sessions for a total of five and one half hours.
(c) Fewer requests for investigation
Only one request for an investigation has been received in this term of
Council. This request concerned a
meeting of the newly appointed Election Compliance Audit Committee. The Meeting Investigator believes that the
problem encountered in this investigation was largely due to the inexperience
of some committee members and is unlikely to reoccur.
Although it is perhaps unrealistic to think that there will never be another
contested in camera meeting of
Council, I am satisfied that the present state of awareness on the part of both
staff and elected members of Council and the policies currently followed will ensure that requests for investigation
will continue to be infrequent during the remainder of this term of
Council.
Douglas R. Wallace
Meeting Investigator
January 10, 2012