The City of St. Albert is not releasing any immediate details about city council’s annual strategic planning session, which was held behind closed doors last week.
Council dug into their strategic plan Jan. 16 and 17 at the River Cree Casino, and while Coun. Ken MacKay argued it is important to have those annual sessions in camera – meaning private – to have “open and frank discussions,” he said there are opportunities to release information to the public.
The level of public involvement and disclosure has been handled in varying ways over the years, but usually some portion of the meeting is held in camera. Last year, the city sent a news release stating nothing had changed in council’s strategic plan.
This year, however, an initial decision to send out a new release “summarizing key outcomes” was reversed according to city corporate communications, and Mayor Cathy Heron declined an interview on the subject.
When asked again to comment during an unrelated interview, she said: “I can’t legally – it was all in camera.”
“There will be stuff coming out of it in the next six months, you know, various points we're going to be following through on ... and there will be actionable items that will be public,” Heron said. “But until we get to that point, I can't comment.”
Coun. Sheena Hughes said she has fought every year against having strategic planning sessions in camera.
She added when making decisions that impact the community, those discussions should be public.
“Regardless if you think it's comfortable or not,” she said. “And to go in camera, there should be a justification and not just 'I'd rather not talk about it in public.'”
Coun. Wes Brodhead agreed with MacKay, saying council needs to be able to speak freely, and the only time that happens is in camera.
"People don’t like to look bad, and so they’re very guarded in what they say."
According to the meeting agenda, justification for the session being in camera was a section of FOIP related to “advice from officials.”
MacKay said what direction council decided to take in the future should be disclosed to the public, but it should be “co-ordinated.”
“That concerns me,” he said.
Nothing changed
In 2018, council drew six priorities for their term in office, and those priorities remained the same as a result of this year’s planning session, MacKay said.
“I don’t think there was anything in there that changed our strategic plan,” he said. “I think we’re doing things very well.”
In an interview on Heron’s goals and priorities for 2020 earlier this month, Heron said this year council may need to accelerate some items on their strategic plan.
“Maybe that will require us prioritizing some of the plan over other pieces of the plan,” she said at the time.
Brodhead said during the session councillors each defined what they believe council's initiatives should be for the year, which he said was "surprisingly consistent."
"There were a few outliers, but not many," he said. "I was pleased with the outcome, quite honestly."
