NH Council votes against recommendation, preserves annual town hall meeting
BY SCOTT STEPHENSON
At a regular meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 8, North Huron Council voted against an amendment to its procedural bylaw that guarantees a public town hall meeting at least once a year.
Councillors were divided in their opinions about the value of town hall meetings. Councillor Mitch Wright spoke in favour of keeping the town hall requirement. “What I am concerned about is the elimination of any public meeting,” he said. He cited the elimination of the parks committee as an example of the problem. “People used to have the ability to ask questions of council, and that’s been taken away.”
Wright went on to urge that council move in the opposite direction, saying that they should “interact with the taxpayers more, not less…. What is gained by eliminating the public meeting?… I don’t see anything gained, and I see opportunities lost. They lose the ability to ask questions and get answers.”
Deputy-Reeve Kevin Falconer argued that public meetings were an ineffective way of interacting with constituents, as the format is too broad. “Basically all the public meetings we had were just stone throwing,” he said. Falconer also countered Wright’s assertion that the public town hall is the only place for citizens to voice their opinions, pointing out that there is an allotted time at the beginning of every council meeting for public comment.
Wright pushed back against the idea that public comment is the equivalent of a public town hall meeting. “I’ve heard a lot of people voice frustrations about the public comment method. Yeah, they can ask a question, but they can never get an answer.” Wright suggested that public meetings could be made into a less chaotic situation if everyone had to send their questions in advance. Wright also made note of the fact that many members of the North Huron staff don’t live within the municipality, saying that “it’s easy to lose touch with what is important to the people that live here and I think it’s important to keep the connection. I think we should have more public meetings, to be quite honest.”
Councillor Chris Palmer recalled past open meetings he’s experienced as difficult, but felt they are essential to successful governance, commenting that “open meetings can be really, really tough, but we shouldn’t shy away from that…. It’s hard, but I still think we should do it.”
Council voted against the proposed amendment to the procedure bylaw that would abandon the town hall meeting requirement, but voted in favour of a complementary recommendation that township staff update the methods they use to receive public input during the budgeting process.