EDITORIAL – The old way of doing Public Inquiries worked; please bring it back

An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.

IF TUESDAY’S MEETING of Kamloops City council was supposed to herald the return of public engagement, it was a miserable flop.

Despite expectations that the old way of doing public inquiries at regular council meetings would be returned, it was not. Instead, there was a retrenchment to an experiment the past council tried that was never any good.

Maybe Mayor Mike O’Reilly just hasn’t had time to get around to his campaign promise, but let’s hope he gets to it soon. If not, somebody in the new council needs to step forward — it’s up to them to approve any changes, regardless.

Under the old way, which was successful for some 20 years, there were two opportunities on council agendas for members of the public to stand at the podium and ask or say anything they wanted to about City business.

Then, a couple of councils ago, they were restricted to talking only about items that were on that day’s agenda. Then, the number of public inquiries opportunities was cut from two to one in each meeting.

Along came the 2022-26 criticism-averse council that didn’t like some of what was being said during public inquiries. Councillors blamed most of it on then-Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson, who believed taxpayers should be given a lot of leeway.

But, said councillors, the mayor couldn’t control those who spoke during public inquiries. And they were taking too long. So after a couple of back-and-forths, the council implemented strict requirements around public inquiries that made the whole exercise a bit of a joke.

If anyone wanted to speak to council at its regular meetings, they were required to pre-register by a deadline, which was set for 12 noon the Monday before the Tuesday meeting.

A would-be speaker had to fill out a form with name and contact information, topic and a summary of what he or she intended to say. And there would be a time limit of two minutes, with a maximum of five speakers allowed.

Plus, of course, there must be strict adherence to an agenda item.

But then, councillors decided that wasn’t good enough either, and suspended public inquiries/ public input entirely until the end of the term. That term now being ended, the pre-registration system has come back into play. All the same restrictions apply.

At Tuesday’s meeting, not a single application to speak was received. Which might be due to the fact nobody knew that the registration system was being returned. Or that the system is so clumsy that nobody’s willing to go through it.

The result may be one the new council is happy with, but it runs totally counter to the concept that the people who elect a City council should have a range of opportunities to speak directly to that council.

If the previous council sincerely believed Hamer-Jackson was the problem with respect to public inquiries, why does the new one think the problem remains now that he’s gone?

There are five new councillors on Kamloops City council. They’re going to be tempted to go along to get along, at least in early days. Hopefully, though, the time will come when they feel confident enough to speak up against such nonsense.

But maybe Mayor O’Reilly will bring it up first.

Mel Rothenburger is a former regular contributor to CFJC-TV and CBC radio, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, writes for the Kamloops Chronicle and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, and was 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.