A meeting, a workshop; what's the difference to an uninvited public?

To the Editor:

I arrived at the Wolfville town hall July 16 at just about 7:30 p.m. for the scheduled council monthly meeting. Instead of going right into the meeting room, there were several individuals milling around outside. Perhaps the meeting was going to be held outside, given it was a beautiful evening.

In a few minutes, the front doors opened. I was told the audit committee had been meeting with the town auditor. I didn’t recall seeing any notice of such meeting posted on the town’s website under the calendar of events, where I check for upcoming events. (I looked at the website when I returned home after the meeting, and no meeting of the Audit Committee was posted. Also, there is no listing of the Audit Committee meeting in the Upcoming Meeting/ Events section of June 18 and July 3 council meeting agendas.)

Apparently, part or all of the meeting with the auditor was closed to the public. At the council meeting, I asked what provision of the Municipal Government Act (MGA) allowed the meeting with the auditor to be closed. Deputy Mayor Wrye said the public had been excluded based upon a “personnel matters” exemption. (See MGA Section 22(2)(c).) I suppose it was possible some sort of personnel matter could involve the auditor. But for the entire hour-and-a-half? If the entire meeting wasn’t closed to the public, why wasn’t the meeting announced on the town’s website, where all other committee meetings are listed?

This incident reminded me of another procedural matter.

In late June or early July, the town’s Sustainable Community Task Force (the “task force”) met with individuals who had carried out the public survey, and the public was excluded. At a subsequent council meeting, I asked under what authority had the task force meeting been closed to the public. Deputy Mayor Wrye said it had been closed under a provision of the MGA. By email, I informed the deputy mayor I had reviewed the MGA and could find no such authority. Did I miss something? At the meeting of the task force July 4, the deputy mayor answered my question by stating, after consulting with the town’s counsel, it was concluded since the MGA does not define what a “meeting” is, the closed gathering of the task force was not a “meeting” at all, but a “workshop” and therefore was not required to comply with the MGA’s open “meeting” requirement.

But of course, whether a meeting is a “workshop” or a “meeting,” or whether a town is empowered to hold workshops, only begs the question: why was the public excluded in the first place? The only substantive reason mentioned to me was, if the public were allowed to participate, it would be hard to accomplish the tasks at hand in the limited amount of time available. Might I suggest if that was the concern, a better course of action would be to invite the public to the meeting, but inform the public, because of time constraints, the public could observe, but not comment, and that any comments or questions would be addressed at the next task force meeting.

David A. Daniels

Wolfville