This is your chance to ask Tracey Mckenzie (Deputy Clerk, County of Lennox and Addington) follow up questions from her webinar that provided a behind the scenes look at how her small local government approached and manages transparency. Tracey is happy to field questions or comments about the webinar (see participant questions below) so ask away by posting a comment!
If you missed the webinar, a recording will be posted to ClerkOn soon!
Ellensburg (WA): “With the split screen view [published agenda], do you actually scroll through page by page even on longer documents?”
Dalhousie (NB): “We routinely publish the agenda with attachments to Council, but due to official language requirements we don't publish publicly. Since our cover pages are all translated, would it be possible to publish just the cover page, without attachments, to our public site and also publish the entire package with attachments for just Council to see?”
Bruce County (ON): “How many members [Council members] and do you Live Stream Council and Committee meetings?”
Kirkland Lake (ON): “How do your closed meeting agendas get published so they are not available to the public?”
Campbell (CA): “How do you post desk items received after the agenda is posted?”
Brazeau County (AB): “Do you still print hard copies of the agenda to have them available for members of the public who attend the meetings?”
Grenfell (SK): “Do you allow the public to see all of the meeting documents attached to the agenda? For example letters of complaint, etc. etc.”
Calistoga (CA): “Closed session agendas are published and open for public viewing, but the staff reports or memos are confidential. Is it possible to publish only a portion of the documents for a Closed Session?”
Lumsden (SK): “… how [does] the resolution recording works?”
Kirkland Lake (ON): “What is the capacity of the database [application]? How many years of minutes/bylaws/documents would you store?”
Grenfell (SK): “If you need a paper packet do they print out easily and correctly?”
When it is a very long document we usually bring it up on the screen and have it available in case Council refer to a specific page.
We have 8 members of County Council. We have not started Live Streaming of meetings yet, but iCompass do also offer that service.
There is an option for the agenda and reports to be marked as Closed. When it is published, the Councillor's can access it by logging in with a password, either on their iPad or through the website. Without a password the Closed Session materials can not be viewed.
There is an option to mark items as an "addenda". It is then noted with an "A" on the cover sheets. We then re-publish the agenda and Councillors receive notifcation that it has been updated and the version with addendums is available to be uploaded to their iPad.
We do print a few copies and have them on hand, in case someone asks. But since we began projecting the entire agenda we haven't really had the necessity to hand out paper copies.
All documents that are attached to an open session agenda are considered part of the public document. For privacy purposes we redact any personal information. Only closed meeting agendas (and their attachments) are not available to the public.
We do not publish closed session agendas for public viewing. Members of Council access the agenda and all of its attachments using a password. I'm not certain if you can publish some of the documents for a closed session
In order to publish the entire package with attachments for only Council to see, I believe it would need to be published as if it were a closed meeting. They would then access it by logging in with a password.