Oh what a night

I MUST admit that I never expected my first council meeting to last more than five hours, but it was great! As Councillor Bromfield said, it was just like old times. She was right. The level of debate had not been seen since the days of mayor Tim Morris and earlier. Under the last couple of mayors, a long meeting was one that lasted more than an hour.

My putting up 16 motions-on-notice was probably a little excessive in retrospect, but I appreciate the support of my council colleagues in endorsing 14 of them. I was disappointed that two items failed to win their support and will have more to say about that in coming days.

In truth, most of my motions were hardly rocket science. They were simple common sense motions about the way the council provides information to the public. They were not about providing additional information, just providing it in a more effective way - online. Some councillors were rightly concerned about the extra burden this will place on council staff, so I have volunteered to assist in this process until the council can allocate the necessary staffing resources.

A closed meeting was held after the open session. I objected to this, and expressed my concern that the agenda for the closed meeting was withheld until the last minute, leaving councillors no time to consider its contents. I voted against the two items on the closed agenda.