City hall meetings running longer

An analysis by public policy director also shows there are fewer held in camera

Saskatoon municipal politicians spent 11 and a half days in meetings during the last year.

A city hall report shows council members attended 278 hours of policy meetings between Aug. 1, 2017 and July 31, 2018.

An analysis shows that of the four years studied, 2017-18 had the largest share of public meetings since city council meetings were reduced from every two weeks to once a month in 2014.

Nearly 82 per cent of meetings in 2017-18 were open to the public and broadcast online and available for viewing after the meeting was over.

“The (data) shows that public meeting hours have been steadily increasing, while private meeting hours have ebbs and flows,” says the report, which was written by Mike Jordan, the city’s director of public policy and government relations.

The percentage of hours spent at in camera meetings dropped to its lowest share in the four years studied — 18.3 per cent, less than half of the 40.9 per cent in 2014-15.

The study covers the six meetings attended by council members at which policy decisions can be made. These meetings include regular council meetings, public hearing meetings, the governance and priorities committee that includes all councillors and the mayor, and four special policy committees.

The four policy committees each include five councillors and the mayor. Each councillor serves on two committees. All meetings are usually held on Mondays.

Council members spent 227.3 hours in public meetings in 201718 — the highest total by far of the four years — and 50.8 hours in private meetings.

City council is required to conduct its business in public under provincial legislation, but some exemptions allow politicians and administrators to meet behind closed doors.

Council meetings accounted for the most hours at 82.8 in 2017-18, which was also the most hours for council meetings in the four years. The governance and priorities committee met for 69.3 hours, substantially fewer than the 128.6 hours in 2014-15.

The transportation committee met for 39 hours in 2017-18, which was the most hours of any special policy committee in the four years.

The planning, development and community services committee and the finance committee met for an identical 32.8 hours in 2017-18. Council’s environment, utilities and corporate services committee met for 21.5 hours.

In 2017-18, 251 speakers appeared before council and committees and 199 wrote correspondence.