Your councillors just went dark on a City Manager update
There was a quick pivot at City Hall this week, one that saw your entire City Council decide to move a meeting behind closed doors. On April 30, the full council – all 13 members – initially moved to adopt the special City Council meeting agenda. Then, Councillor T. Parmar introduced a motion for Council to meet in private. This was to discuss a City Manager update, citing sections 20 and 29 of the *Access to Information Act* – basically, privacy and official advice.
What's notable here is that this motion carried unanimously. Every single councillor present, from A. Knack to J. Morgan, voted yes.
* Councillor T. Parmar moved the motion to go private. * The vote was 13-0 in favour of going private. * Citations were "disclosure harmful to personal privacy" and "advice from officials." * Shortly after, Councillor K. Tang moved to meet in public, which also carried unanimously.
Honestly though, it’s a quick turnaround. From public to private and then back to public, all with unanimous consent. It leaves you wondering what exactly was in that City Manager's update that required such a brief, collective moment of privacy before everyone agreed to come back out into the light. We'll be keeping an eye on the public record for any follow-up discussions that might shed light on this particular interlude.
Darren Fedoruk (@deepnorth_yeg) Edmonton doesn't need your approval. Never did.
You should hear the crew on the morning show talk about this. Catch it live at mornings.live.