EDITORIAL – Public inquiries may yet be saved, but it sure ain’t simple

An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.

THE GOOD NEWS IS, public enquiries at Kamloops City council meetings aren’t quite dead. But, goodness, given a choice of keeping things simple, or making them complicated, the council will take the latter pretty much every time.

The deal at Tuesday’s (Jan. 14, 2025) meeting was that, based on previous discussion including a committee meeting, council was asked to approve an amendment to its procedures bylaw allowing council to make changes to agenda lineups.

That was approved. The next step was to approve suspending public inquiries for six months, with the result to be evaluated. That’s when things got complicated.

Coun. Mike O’Reilly worried about going too fast. “It seems we’ve gone too far too quick if we do this,” he said, suggesting public inquiries be reduced to 15 minutes total, with a maximum of two minutes per speaker, an idea that has come up before.

Nancy Bepple thought that might be a good way to go, better than the six-month plan. So did Kelly Hall. But then Coun. Margot Middleton thought a suspension for a couple of months would still be a good idea so that staff could bring back some options. So, suspend for two months, and staff come back with a new bylaw.

Sarai wondered about three months but was OK with two. Then there was discussion about details of how it would all work. Katie Neustaeter thought they’d spent enough time talking about it already but agreed to vote whichever way the rest of them wanted.

Hall questioned the two-month timeline, since staff said they’d be able to come back with a new bylaw for the Jan. 28 meeting, which would mean it could be approved a couple of weeks later.

All the while, Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson was insisting everything was fine as it was, though he’d like to have a count done of how many times a speaker has gone beyond the five-minute deadline. A couple of councillors — Sarai and Neustaeter — said the time limit wasn’t the issue, though they’d spoken in the past about how public inquiries were taking too long.

Corporate officer Maria Mazzotta pointed out that two doesn’t divide evenly into 15, so O’Reilly suggested 14 minutes and two minutes. Bepple liked 16 and two better.

But that was defeated. Back to Middleton’s two months and leave the formula open to staff to propose. CAO Byron McCorkell suggested sending it to a Committee of the Whole meeting for more work.

“It’s a workshop item,” he said. “This is a council conversation. In the end, it’s your meeting. How you want to conduct it, it’s not ours to be concerned about.”

Excellent point. Why, indeed, would council expect staff to do their work for them in creating a formula for public inquiries? But this council routinely passes things on to staff when it’s not necessary, while also routinely insisting staff is working too hard.

Anyway, Middleton’s bad idea won the day. Back to a committee but, meanwhile, no public inquiries allowed.

So here’s what would have been the simple way. Implement the 16-2 formula (or 14-2 if you prefer) now, evaluate how it’s working, then review it in two to three months. Why remove public inquiries in the meantime, especially since most of council now professes to want to find a way to save them? How do you evaluate something you don’t have?

But, at least the discussion of saving public inquiries has taken over from a determination — as originally put on the table by Sarai — to axe them outright. The residents who spoke very articulately in favour of keeping them can take some of the credit for that. A request from Kamloops Citizens United for a meeting with council to talk it over received no response but maybe it will happen yet.

Mel Rothenburger is a former regular contributor to CFJC-TV and CBC radio, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, and a Webster Foundation Commentator of the Year finalist. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor.  He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.