City offers look at formerly confidential documents
The city has quietly published a new web page that allows Calgarians to track the release of documents that were previously deemed confidential by city council in a bid to improve transparency at city hall.
The page compiles formerly confidential reports and “pending” reports that will be released by a future deadline. Previously, Calgarians would have had to file a freedom of information request with the city or painstakingly search through municipal web archives to locate documents that may or may not have been retroactively added to old municipal agendas.
“I’m very happy that some results are happening, that we’re starting to get the transparency that is required,” said Coun. Peter Demong, whose 2018 motion helped to instigate the new practice.
“Hopefully there is not just the transparency, but that accountability of ‘we went in camera and now we’re letting you know why.’ ”
The first batch of confidential reports published on the page range from the benign to the curious.
One report included a list of nominees for a community achievement award; another report contained notes from a facilitator of one of council’s recent strategy sessions that included suggestions to council members like “no cellphones” in meetings and an encouragement to be “truly open to seeing it differently.”
Under provincial rules, city council routinely discusses certain matters in a closed meeting when they pertain to personnel issues, legal matters and business items involving land acquisitions or proprietary information.
Starting this year, each confidential city report has included a “review by” date to ensure that it can eventually be published online.
The changes are the result of a notice of motion from Demong and a subsequent motion from Coun. Jeromy Farkas, the city said Monday.
The web page went live on Calgary.ca on Friday.
Deputy city clerk Tim Mowrey said the website is part of “ongoing work to share public information and ensure transparency in municipal government.”
“Any future confidential documents going to council or documents that have gone to council since Jan. 1, 2019, will be considered in this public release process,” Mowrey said.
While not all of the links on the new web page were working Monday afternoon, Farkas said the move could still be viewed as a “culture shift” at city hall.
“Before this council term, whenever council had kept something confidential it was kept confidential until the end of time — now, there’s a time limit on the confidentiality,” said Farkas.
“It’s one of the main things people have been asking for from their council: more transparency.”