Councillors turn to city in transparency push

Victoria should step up efforts to improve transparency, say councillors Ben Isitt and Jeremy Loveday.

Building on a presentation made to the inaugural meeting of the new Capital Regional Distict board by the Grumpy Taxpayer$ of Greater Victoria, a civic advocacy group, the two are suggesting a number of steps the city can take and which they hope all local governments might adopt.

“It’s basically endorsing the actions from the Grumpy Taxpayer$ and dealing with them as a suite of six actions,” Isitt said.

The recommendations going to a committee for consideration include:

• Expanding an online “dashboard” like one used by the City of Vancouver that allows citizens to track elected officials’ meeting attendance and how they vote.

• Posting directors’ financial disclosure statements online and update them each year.

• Publishing councillors’ expenses on a quarterly basis as is done by the City of North Vancouver.

• Releasing decisions and reports from closed meetings as soon as the need for confidentiality ceases to exist.

• Continuing to publish a council meeting highlights report.

• Providing clear summaries of financial information in the municipality’s annual report and annual financial planning documents.

A number of the steps have already been initiated by the city, Isitt said.

“I think the city has been a leader in open government but I think there’s always more we can do.”

The two councillors said that if the recommendations are adopted, other capital region councils should be advised.

Isitt said the idea is simply to share the information with other local governments.

“I think sharing information between local governments is a good practice. I like to receive correspondence from other local governments when they have a good idea. It’s good to hear what they are working on,” Isitt said.

“So I think having more communication rather than less between the various councils is a good thing.”