WALSH – No, holding a town hall meeting is not the movies

EDITOR’S NOTE: I’m pleased to announced that former Kamloops City councillor Denis Walsh joins ArmchairMayor.ca as a regular columnist today. He will focus on civic politics.

THIS WEEK, the mayor made a motion for council to hold Town Hall meetings but council wasn’t having it.

Apparently, council entertained the idea back in February but sent it to the mayor’s community relations standing committee, then in March froze the committee. Why not simply direct administration to get it done?

When a member of the public urged council for town hall meetings, Coun. Bass and Coun. Karpuk interrupted. Afterward, council members rambled on longer than the questioner. They can hardly complain public inquiries take too much council time but they will somehow blame Mayor Hamer-Jackson anyway.

Traditionally, only the mayor responded to public inquiries. Traditionally, members of the public were allowed to bring up any issue of civic concern.

But City Hall doesn’t act like it wants public engagement. It blocked public comments on its Facebook page and doesn’t allow comments on its YouTube platform. Councillors are no longer required to reply to certain emails. Now, members of the public may only ask questions around items on that day’s council agenda.

Coun. Sarai worried that a public forum would be an opportunity for the public to vent. He suggested an ‘open mike’ format would not be productive and there would be a need to “steer the questions.” He seems to think if people question any council decisions, they are being obstructive.

But who is really being obstructive here?

Was it obstruction or just rudeness when Coun. Bass repeatedly interrupted a person who asked why City Hall was finding it so hard to arrange a public meeting, and then suggested that person “should sit on council and find out”?

Was it obstruction when council tore apart the mayor’s motion asking the City to review the 48 West Vic street storage and day lodge facility for the marginalized? Corporate officer Mazzotta allowed an amendment to his motion that eliminated him from participating in the debate, then council voted to send it to a committee which it then froze.

Was it obstruction or something worse when council members convened a media event in council chambers to accuse the mayor of harassment but refused to give examples or details?

Is it obstruction when our elected mayor must continually submit Freedom of Information requests to City Hall in order to get information he should be able to freely access?

Was it obstruction when a council select committee voted in direct violation of the B.C. Community Charter, when it tried to prevent the mayor from appointing members of the public to his standing committees, a vote which Mazzotta later called “inadmissible”?

Which raises another question. Why did Acting CAO Fretz and Acting corporate officer Passmore allow such a vote at the select committee meeting in the first place? Are they both completely unfamiliar with the Community Charter? Why would they allow this waste of time?

Several councillors said a town hall meeting would take a lot of time to arrange. Coun. Karpuk arrogantly told a member of the public that “it’s not like in the movies”— there are considerations like locations and staff time to organize.

What’s so difficult and time-consuming about arranging a public forum? The City already has venues and sound equipment. Booking these would be simple. Then there’s just the questions of setting a date, finding a moderator and advertising.

Open and free public discussion of issues of wide community concern is necessary and useful. As one member of the public pointed out at this past week’s council meeting, other cities use their residents as “intelligence gatherers with a unique perspective.”

But a town-hall meeting City-Hall style seems to require much more than that. Past town halls have not welcomed free and open public discussion. Instead, they’ve been exercises in ‘divide and conquer’ where people are shunted to passive, siloed displays called ‘select round tables’ for semi-private talks with City representatives instead of an open mike where everyone can hear questions and answers.

One councillor said the City couldn’t hold a public forum unless all City administrators, including those from fire and police services, were able to attend.

That’s not necessary. Only council members need to be there. If there are questions that must be answered by specific City departments, those questions can be passed along and the responses published on City social media platforms or as reports to council, perhaps for further discussion. These important public forums should always be video archived.

Despite council’s assertion that organizing public events is hard, a handful of local citizens are doing just that.

On June 21 the group is holding an open public forum on community safety for people to hear about and discuss potential solutions outlined by the keynote speaker, a well-known film-maker who has explored Canadian street crime issues in depth.

All members of the community are welcome to share their knowledge and perspectives. Maybe City council and some administrators will attend. If so, they can see how an open public meeting can be easily accomplished if the will to encourage public engagement is there.

Denis Walsh is a former three-term Kamloops City councillor. He chose not to run again in 2022, convinced that City councillors should step aside after a maximum of three terms to allow others to serve and to experience being on the “outside looking in.”