“This board is aging me at twice the normal rate.”
That was Trustee Ernie Parsons with the Hastings Prince Edward District School Board.
At the Monday evening meeting of the trustees for HPEDSB, members discussed one motion for close to an hour.
Trustee Parsons’ motion:
“That the Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board immediately amend all public agendas to add an item to permit members of the community to appear as a delegation.”
Current by-laws allow public delegations to speak at the Committee of the Whole (open to the public) meeting, but not the Public Board Meeting.
The discussion got into the weeds with trustees suggesting it should go back to committee for discussion, the wording of the motion should be adjusted, as well as the number of times the public approaches the board to speak.
Parsons says the motion was not rocket science.
“The issue is do we want to be an inviting board? We’re an inviting board by putting an item for delegations in the agenda. The question really simply is, does this board support encouraging the public to share with us or not?”
There were two recorded votes and in the end, they both went down to defeat, meaning the public cannot have a delegation at the public meeting of the board.
The only trustees that voted in favour of the original motion were Ernie Parsons, Rachel Prinzen, and Kandis Hambly.
During the meeting, Board Chair Kari Kramp did suggest the topic could go back to committee for further discussion.
“We can add that as an agenda item for the Governance and Policy Committee, to ensure that we look at the process to see that it’s communicated in a way that’s effective and is welcoming for community members’ input, which we do welcome.”
Trustee Kandis Hambly says she was not in favour of someone just talking endlessly at a meeting, but did support the motion.
“All Trustee Parsons is trying to do, and I do agree with it too, is to be able to get the public to be able to come and have a little bit more say, or to be able to say something that they need help with or want us to do.”
