There were no secret deals but Belleville council did breach the Ontario Municipal Act in closed
meetings regarding the land swap involving the City and the YMCA of Central East Ontario.
Those were the general findings in a report made by the City’s Closed Meeting Investigator after resident Alex Wideman filed a complaint September 23.
The matters at hand involved both open and closed meetings of Belleville council and its decision to
have the new YMCA Centre for Life built on Bridge Street West in Centennial Park rather than the
former fairgrounds property.
The swap was made after studies showed there was contamination on the fairgrounds site.
The Investigator found that council breached regulations by voting on a substantive issue (approval of land swap) in closed session and failing to provide an adequate description of the topic
on the open meeting agenda in meetings last July.
The swap had been publicly announced by council in August of last year.
The Investigator’s report will be on council’s agenda Monday along with a resolution to declare the land in Centennial Park surplus to the city’s needs to allow a formal sale of the property to the YMCA, something
that should have been done previously.
In his report Investigator David Boghosian says the City had previously updated its Procedural By-law to deal with the issues found in the report to be seen by council after a similar investigation was made public
in July regarding council’s handling of the vacant property near Jane Forrester Park at the end of South John Street.
However he did make one recommendation which can be seen below.
Where the City intends to rely on the s. 239(6)(b) exception to the requirement of
holding votes in public session unless the vote is for a procedural matter or for
giving directions or instructions to officers, employees or agents of the
municipality, Council should put on the record in the public session that it has
expressly turned its mind to whether a vote taken in closed session is on a
substantive rather than a procedural matter or one merely providing directions to
staff by asking whether Council has previously voted on the substance of the matter
in a public session and staff are only being directed to implement the earlier
decision or, if staff are being given authority to take fresh steps, that any such steps
are conditional on subsequent Council approval.
The full report can be seen here.
