Good local government depends on residents’ knowledge reaching council before decisions are made, not after. In Lanark Highlands, that flow has gone mostly one way — closed sessions, minimal record-keeping, and public input that arrives once the outcome is already set. Here’s what that’s cost us, and how I’d change it.

The Problem:

The pattern shows up again and again:

• Extended and excessive reliance on in-camera sessions has hidden council discussions and decisions for extended periods (example: the Kitten Mill matter – for roughly 11 months).
• Council minutes record only final votes, with no record of the discussion that led to them or which members supported what.
• With one exception, every sitting council member committed to hosting quarterly ward meetings to hear local concerns; none have been held.
• Public engagement has relied almost entirely on multiple-choice surveys that don’t allow for actual opinions and are poorly publicized.
• Procedural By-law rules mean public comment on council issues is received only after final decisions have been made.
• Budget documents are excessively difficult for residents to interpret, and the formal practice of holding a public meeting to review the draft budget has been discontinued.

The cost isn’t measured in dollars — it’s measured in decisions made, and defended, without the people they affect ever having a real say.

My Position:

Communication with residents has to run both ways, not just outward. Residents’ local knowledge should shape decisions before they’re made, not simply collected as an afterthought after the vote – and this is where my career applies directly. After 25 years making complex systems understandable and usable for people who are often locked out, I have decades of experience fixing this kind of problem, because it’s the same problem, just wearing municipal government’s clothes.

What I’ll Push For:

• Require the specific legal reason for any in-camera session to appear on the public agenda — not just a generic citation of the Municipal Act exception.
• Adopt ‘Discussion Minutes’ that record the substance of debate and each member’s position, not just the final vote.
• Move the opportunity for public comment to the Committee of the Whole, rather than at Council after final decisions have been voted on.
• Actually hold the quarterly ward meetings every current council member already promised, and support making them a formal requirement in the Procedural By-law
• Create real, standing pathways — like volunteer advisory committees — for residents to bring their professional and real-world experience into council decisions before they’re made, not just react to them afterward. Lanark Highlands has a large population of retirees with decades of relevant experience; council currently does little to actively draw on it.