Guide from the City of Toronto.

http://www.toronto.ca/cap/pdf/councillors_guide.pdf

"Only in restricted circumstances may councillors have the right to access certain types of information not available to the general public:

1. If the information is necessary in for the business of Council

2. If the information is reasonably necessary for decision making purposes."

Here is a document from NSW, Australia that spells out the policy clearly:
http://www.bmcc.nsw.gov.au/download.cfm?f=F447BF29-423B-CE58-A3422820903BA5E4

Kind of refreshing to see that such policies are available to the general public in some other jurisdictions.

We have a long way to go.

Yes,

The setup of our city administration is beginning to show it's ancient age.

Such a shame that we have such a long way to go.

Is there currently an item before council that would require the information he is requesting?

If the city council decided as a whole that the information was important for decision making, then they should be asking for, and having the information presented to the whole council, and that should be covered.

If however a single councilor is just curious, particularly if the item is not currently coming up for a vote, that cost should not be covered.

If he is requesting information that he has access to, because he is a councilor, that would not be available to the general public, then it may be a more serious issue.

A police officer, even though he has access to the database, cannot simply pull up criminal records of his neighbors because he is curious.

Similarly just because he is curious, it does not provide the right to gain access to confidential information, even if he has the ability as councilor to gain access.

Councilman Skakun makes a really good argument here IMO. The city could easily formulate a policy that sees the city pay the cost for city related freedom of information requests by the decision makers at city council. Its seems like a no brainer to me.

If not can the citizens of this city ever expect our councilors to do their due diligence on our behalf?

The Community Gaming Center is a city issue and Skakun has every right to look into that as an elected city councilor... whether or not it is on the councils agenda.

1. Is there currently an item before council that would require the information he is requesting?

The gaming centre has been a matter that has been in front of Council for some time in an off and on basis. I believe it is the first time that the City has sold or leased air rights over a property which I believe is owned by the City and a parkade that is owned by the city.

Notice, there are a lot of "believes" in my wording because I do not know and you can probably rest assured that Skakun should know more than that as a Councillor but has not been given the full goods.

Council is a Board of Directors for running this City. Boards of Directors get the kind of information he is requesting for corporations they direct. If they don't, they certainly can ask for it and will receive it or can meet with the staff to discuss it with them and look at the documents.

To not allow that shows me that the corporation or the municipality is not being as transparent as they should be. There is absolutely nothing in that information that should be priviledged and come under the right to privacy legislation. They are all contractual matters. They are not documents about who slept with whom and which contractor has lupus.

On top of that, while even the public has access to the information, and that shows because he was given that access, the question is whether a Councillor has to pay for it. maybe he should pay for it so that the City can keep its costs allocated to where they occur, and then he claims it as an expense for doing his job.

BTW, the memo to Council states:

"3. That the City of Prince George develops a policy to give Prince George City Councillors information they request regarding any City, Regional or Provincial matters. "

The Mayor refuses to discuss that. What is the Mayor afraid of?

I think the statement is clear. Develop a policy. Unlike many other jurisdictions, there does not appear to be ANY policy in place for Concillors. Why not?

If there is a policy, a good one would deal with those three public bodies which a City has dealings with. No one is saying what that policy should be. It might very well say that when it comes to provincial jurisdiction that Councillors be treated the same way as the general public and then when there is an integration of work between City and Province, that the information will be sought by Administration and given to Councillors as Administration deems necerssary for that case.

That is just a request to set a policy in the absence of such a policy. Not about what the policy should be.

What is wrong with this picture? This palce is getting more and more secretive!!!!!

"Discussion into a policy area that would be beyond our authority would be inapproporiate in the very least."

Mayor Rogers is right that access to provincial information is beyond the City's authority.

In my opinion, he badly misreads or even misdirects people with his statement. Everyone has an FOI request right. Everyone will be given the information they request as long as it is not deemed private or the individual about whom the information is released agrees to the release of that information.

Given the context of the notice of motion, it seems to me that any reasonable reader would infer from that, that if a councillor deems it necessary in order to do his or her due diligence, they would like to access a 50 page document and they manage to do that, that the City pay for that.

Not only that, but I would think it should also mean that the Councillor has access to City Hall staff to do that search for them and distribute the information among other Councillors who might want to do their due diligence about the matter as well.

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Doncha know?

Will there be HST on these fees next summer? Betcha there will be. Betcha betcha.

I like Brian S. he is the only counciller with some GUTS, I just hope he wins his court case.

Funny how Councillor Brian Skakun's troubles reminded me of the Olympic cops - harrass and silence the truth.