Jerry Arshinoff, Rocky View County (RVC) Div. 2 councillor, is appealing to his fellow councillors and county administration for greater transparency and proper public engagement, moving forward.
Arshinoff has expressed his concerns to the Cochrane Eagle that county budget workshops are not open to the public — contrary to what is outlined in the Municipal Governance Act (MGA):
‘The MGA sets out clear requirements for municipal councils to conduct their business openly…The powers of a municipal council are balanced by councils’ accountability to the citizens who elect them. It is therefore essential that citizens are allowed to take an active interest in the development and direction of local governments and express their views to their locally elected representatives.’
The MGA continues on to state that councils should avoid conducting business in-camera, including topics such as budget deliberations.
“Clearly the public should be invited to at least attend, if not participate, in these budget workshops,” stated Arshinoff. “Why are they not available to the public? It’s just wrong.”
The closed 2015 budget workshops are scheduled for Nov. 6 and Nov. 27.
“Workshops are information sessions hosted by the county manager and the attendance of council members are not required,” said Grant Kaiser, communications manager for the county.
“No decisions are sought by administration. As such, they are in accordance with the MGA…the planned workshops are not open to the public, but the proposed 2015 ‘operating and capital base budget’ will be released to the public, debated in public and approved or rejected by council in public.”
As far as Arshinoff is concerned, this demonstrates a lack of transparency — since it’s the workshops that provide the background for budget matters; without offering the public an opportunity to attend these workshops, it’s challenging for the public to understand how budget priorities are established.
Arshinoff also noted that these workshops are not recorded and that no minutes are accounted for. Only audio files are uploaded to the county website, taken down after a couple of weeks.
“Why take them down? Why not leave them up?”
Arshinoff is hoping the public will bring this to the attention of the Ministry of Municipal Affairs.
Cochrane’s budget deliberations are open to the public. Wood Buffalo and Stoney Plain also keep their budget deliberations open to the public.
Kaiser asserts that county administration did take steps to ‘move to a more meaningful, proactive public engagement for the 2015 budgeting process’.
“It began with the online posting of the county’s budget and quarterly financial statements for anyone to review at any time,” he said.
“This budget documentation was augmented by the publication of the Your County, Your Money, Your Voice guide, which outlined, in plain language and easy-to-understand figures, the county’s services and exactly what was spent per resident in delivering those services.”
The guide, according to Kaiser, followed up with an open house to provide a platform for the public to engage with representatives from all county departments.
There was also an online survey (offered in person or via telephone to those without online access) that was made available for residents to offer feedback and suggest ideas on such topics as County priorities and the allocation of tax dollars.
