Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Published Monday, December 17, 2007

HAY RIVER - The new town council in Hay River has gotten off to a rocky start.

Beatrice Lepine, one of five new councillors elected on Dec. 10, called the council's first meeting the following day a farce.

"It was a travesty, as far as I was concerned," she said.

Lepine and some other new councillors objected to the lack of briefings before the first meeting and particularly that some issues were discussed during an in-camera session.

Beatrice Lepine: first meeting of new Hay River town council was a "travesty."

The new council was sworn in on Dec. 11, after which it held its first meeting.

Sandra Lester immediately objected to the agenda's in-camera session to deal with personnel, land and financial issues.

She believes only personnel issues should be dealt with in camera, and asked that the in-camera session be deferred until councillors could learn more about what was going to be discussed.

Other councillors voted to go in camera after Mayor John Pollard assured them the in-camera issues were covered by the Cities, Towns and Villages Act.

After the Dec. 11 meeting, Pollard said not all of the town's business can be conducted in the public eye and he would not hesitate to recommend in-camera sessions when necessary.

The mayor added motions are always passed in open meetings.

The new councillors' frustrations emerged at a special budget meeting on Dec. 13.

Lepine wants full transparency in the way the council is run.

"I don't want to operate in secrecy," she said.

Councillor Diana Ehman agreed, saying some of the issues at the in-camera session need not have been discussed in private.

"I ran on the fact I wanted more open government, more transparency," she said.

At the Dec. 13 meeting, Lester continued to argue against in-camera meetings, unless absolutely necessary.

"We should know as councillors, ahead of time, what the issues are going to be," Lester said.

Lepine said it was "overwhelming" for new councillors to be tossed into decision making without the proper background material.

Most of the items at the first meeting were deferred to a later date.

Councillor Vince McKay, one of just three returning members of the former council, recognized the new councillors feel uninformed, but suggested they learn the material and ask lots of questions.

McKay also said council has to trust town administration on what should and should not be discussed in camera.