City council on Monday are expected to give final approval to flexible closed meeting start times. (Eli J. Ridder/CHAT News)

By Eli J. Ridder | @EliRidder

Medicine Hat city council to decide whether to allow flexible closed meeting start times

Mar 4, 2024 | 7:00 PM

Medicine Hat city council will on Monday decide whether it will scrap the set 3:45 p.m. start time it has for closed meetings in favour of more flexibility.

The city’s agenda review committee — made up of the mayor, city clerk and CAO — would detemine the start time based on the anticipated amount of time agenda items would require, should the proposal pass as expected.

Council already passed a motion at its Dec. 18 meeting that directed staff to bring forward the procedure bylaw amendment that will likely be finalized at the Monday night meeting.

Coun. Shila Sharps was one of the driving forces for a change, saying in December that closed meetings cut into time she could spend working her day job.

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Sharps said at the time many of the closed meetings, such as the one held for less than 20 minutes in December, are not required.

“I completely disagree that it should’ve been in closed, it was something that didn’t fall under a FOIP, so I just stayed in my office,” she said.

“I just can’t do that. I will go to almost every event during the week, I do absolutely everything but what I won’t do is attend something that shouldn’t be in closed,” Sharps added.

Closed meetings follow specific guidelines set out by Alberta’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

Items that end up on the closed meeting agendas can include third party business interests, individual or public safety issues, confidential evaluations, law enforcement and several other categories outlined by law.

City Manager Ann Mitchell in December pointed out to council that, because Medicine Hat owns its utility company, there often can be more items that qualify for a closed meeting than other cities.