Council in Eastern Charlotte are opening up more of the council meetings to the public, according to its mayor.
At it’s October meeting, council voted in favour of making all council meetings open-door meetings, something that has not been the case for some time.
“A lot of them were what we call closed door meetings because councilors, especially the first couple of years, a lot of the councillors are very nervous and wanted to be frank and be able to talk about things,” he said.
Closed door meetings for municipal council means no one from the public or a journalist can sit in on the meeting. Typically, those are used to discuss matters sensitive to privacy like employee matters, contracts and financial matters related to compensation.
Dan Murphy, the executive director of the Union of Municipalities of New Brunswick, said in an email there is no specific number of closed door sessions that can occur, adding it depends on the needs of the discussion.
“The act is specific on what can and can’t be done in a closed session. Council votes must be taken in the open,” he said in an email.
Section 68 of the Local Governance Act deals with closed door sessions, including what would allow it.
Craig said this means the public and journalists will now be able to see the open discussion on agenda items.
“A lot of times you see things getting passed fairly quickly, because of all the discussions were done during those meetings,” he said. “So, those meetings are gonna now be opened up to the public.”
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