Waterfront trust making its minutes public
The Hamilton Waterfront Trust will make minutes from its monthly board meetings public ahead of a presentation to councillors next month.
Coun. Jason Farr, who sits on the board of the arm’s-length agency, put forward a motion at Tuesday’s board meeting to release minutes dating back to 2015.
Waterfront trust executive director Werner Plessl will send the minutes to the city clerk’s office by end of day Wednesday, according to the motion.
Farr said they will be available to the media and the public before the city’s general issues committee meeting on Oct. 4.
City council has asked for the trust’s audited financial statements, and to address certain issues, such as the $330,000 in property taxes owed to the city and its annulled charitable status.
The motion comes after The Spectator and other local media requested the minutes for almost seven weeks.
Board member Coun. Tom Jackson said he doesn’t know of other boards or agencies that submit their minutes to the clerk’s office.
But some like the police services board and the Hamilton Public Library Board post meeting minutes to their websites.
Farr said the trust has received “some public attention” over the past few months, adding, “I can’t stress enough — fair enough.”
He said the board is “fiscally responsible” and made up of a “very devoted group of people.”
Farr said Tuesday’s board meeting was the first one held since it began receiving requests for minutes.“When we make decisions, we make them as a collective.”
Board chair Bob Charters said the trust keeps “getting tagged with this secretive organization.”
“There’s nothing secretive about running trolleys and a tour boat and a coffee shop and a rental building,” he said.
Plessl said he provided the 2016 audited financial statement to the city and the Hamilton Port Authority a couple of weeks ago.
The trust was created in 2000 to settle long-standing issues about the waterfront between the city, federal government and former Hamilton Harbour Commission.
It has developed such amenities as the two popular waterfront trails, one in the west end of the harbour and the other along the beach strip.