Council reaches the 50/50 split tonight for Public and Closed Sessions

City Council hosts a Closed Session, Public Hearing and
Regular Open Council session tonight
(image from City of PR Annual Report)

As they head into the home stretch of the final three months for municipal governance for 2021, Prince Rupert City Council reaches a benchmark tonight, with Mayor Lee Brain and his six council members set to reach a 50/50 split between the Open Public Council sessions and those that they take behind Closed doors.

The split as of the end of business tonight will be at 16 Open, 16 Closed, with tonight's Closed Session of 5PM set to cover off a few items of  note from the criteria specified in Section 90 of the Community Charter.

As they settle in for the early evening get together at City Hall, or perhaps a Closed Zoom Session online, Council will address four of the fifteen elements of the checklist for closing the doors to the public, among then:

(a) personal information about an identifiable individual who holds or is being considered for a position as an officer, employee or agent of the municipality or another position appointed by the municipality; 

(c) labour relations or other employee relations; 

(i) the receipt of advice tha is subject to solicitor-client privilege, including communication necessary for that purpose

(k) negotiations and related discussions respecting the proposed provision of a municipal service that are at the preliminary stages and that, in the view of the council, could reasonably be expected to harm the interests of the municipality if they were held in public.

You can review the provincial guidance on the requirements for Closed Door meetings here.

With three months to go before the end of the 2021 calendar year Council is ahead of the pace for Closing the doors for this year, though they do have a bit to go before reaching the mark for in camera sessions that they hit in 2017.

A look at the number of Closed Sessions from the last five years looks as follows:

2020 -- 17 Closed Sessions

2019 -- 18 Closed Sessions

2018 -- 16 Closed Sessions

2017 -- 20 Closed Sessions

2016 -- 17 Closed Sessions

You can jump into the City Council Time Machine to see what sent them behind the closed doors in years previous from our archive page here.

For items of note related to tonight's Council session see our Council Preview here.

A wider overview of past Council discussion themes can be explored here.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review.