For anyone who wants to review the business of council, Mount Pearl council has voted to make the minutes of its public meetings available to the public a little sooner.
In introducing her notice to council about the change during last week’s meeting, Deputy Mayor Nicole Kieley pointed out that under the old rules, there was a lack of clarity as to when the minutes had to be made public.
Kieley gave notice she will make a motion to change the rules of the City of Mount Pearl Act at an upcoming meeting. The change will see the minutes of council meetings posted to the City's website within three working days of having been approved at a public meeting.
Anyone interested in perusing the minutes, however, should note that the change still won't mean the minutes are available within three working days of the actual meeting that the minutes are meant to reflect. Rather, they will still lag the meeting by at least two weeks in most cases. For example, the minutes of council's 8 meeting will be examined and adopted by council at its March 22 meeting. So, within three days following that, the minutes of the March 8 meeting will go to the website.
"This is really just to ensure that the public knows when to expect minutes," Kieley said. "I'm a big fan of governance and bylaw tweaks because it usually has a great impact on how we're doing things in an accountable manner and a better manner."