It’s the age-old question: how much time should Timmins city council have to review their council meeting packages.

Okay, the question isn’t that old, but Councillor Rick Dubeau is suggesting those packages should come out the Wednesday before a Monday night meeting.

He says as is, they are released on Friday’s at noon…but most of the time, councillors don’t get them until later in the afternoon.

Dubeau says the extra time would allow council to better prepare for the meeting, and allow the public to be informed and ask questions.

The move is being seen with optimism around council chambers after city CAO Dave Landers laid out what issues could come of it.

Landers says the two main issues that would arise would be council can’t get to certain items quick enough because of the time constraint between Monday night and Wednesday afternoon.

There’s also the thought that an earlier release would be redundant, as staff would be constantly revising the agenda anyway.

Councillors made a couple suggestions to offset those problems.

One is to hold council meetings every two weeks to allow more flexibility in terms of adding items.  The other is to have meetings on Tuesday instead of Monday.  The latter would allow city council to ask staff questions on Monday and Tuesday.

The CAO will be communicating with other cities to see how they handle this, and should come back in a report.

Filed under: Local News