Whitestone, Municipality of

The Ombudsman found that the Municipality of Whitestone failed to provide adequate notice of several electronic meetings. The Municipality did not provide any information about how the public could observe some of these meetings. The Municipality also did not take adequate steps to inform the public about how it could observe some of these meetings when the Municipality’s website was down for maintenance and the information was not visible.

The Ombudsman found that the Municipality of Whitestone at two separate meetings did not provide sufficient information in its resolutions to close the meeting to the public. The resolutions indicated that human resources matters would be discussed, however they did not indicate that the discussion would involve multiple separate items related to human resources. A member of the public reading the resolutions would not be able to discern that more than one matter related to human resources was discussed in camera. The Ombudsman’s review concluded that including that information in the resolution would not undermine the reason for discussing the matters in closed session.

The Ombudsman found that a confidential staff report, which included a list of new staff positions, was appropriate for closed session consideration because the report included personal information about identifiable staff members currently employed by the municipality.

The Ombudsman found that the Municipality of Whitestone’s Wah Wash Kesh Landings Task Force is not a committee under the Municipal Act, 2001 or the municipality’s procedure by-law in effect at the time the task force was created. The task force’s membership does not meet the Act’s 50% membership threshold. In addition, the procedure by-law was not sufficiently explicit to find that the task force was intended to be subject to the open meeting rules.

The Ombudsman reviewed a closed meeting held by council for the Town of Whitestone to discuss an organizational review.  Council’s discussion included specific information about the performance of identified staff members and the retirement of two staff members. While not relied upon by the municipality, the Ombudsman found that council’s discussion about the performance of identified employees fit within the labour relations or employee negotiations exception.

The Ombudsman reviewed a closed meeting held by council for the Town of Whitestone to discuss an organizational review. The closed meeting relied on the personal matters exception. Council’s discussion included specific information about the performance of identifiable individual employees and the retirement of two employees. The Ombudsman found that council’s discussion fit within the personal matters exception because it related to the performance of identifiable individual employees.