No Quorem for meeting with MLA.

What is a Council Meeting?

The general rule that all meetings of council be open to the public is intended to be applied broadly, in keeping with the principle of openness and court decisions on the types of gatherings that are deemed to constitute a meeting. Based on some court interpretations, a council meeting is any gathering:

• to which all members of council have been invited; and
• that is a material part of council's decision-making process.

Council gatherings where all council members could be seen to be making decisions, or moving towards making decisions, would meet this two-part definition. All such gatherings should be held in accordance with the Community Charter's open meeting provisions.
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Don Quixote Note:
Was down at City Hall yesterday and observed that at least 2 councillors Baumbrough and Beardsell had entered the building and disappeared into the Administration area. I had learned that the Mayor was meeting with our local MLA Tom Christensen and inquired at the front desk where and when the council would be meeting with him. The front desk asked for the Mayor's assistant to come to talk to me. She acknowledged that all the councilors had been invited but only several had shown up. The meeting was not an open meeting which the public and/or media could attend.

I left and waited outside for about an half hour but no one emerged. I suspected that one of the reasons for this meeting was the resolution passed at a Feb. 25 meeting that 'THAT Council directs staff to arrange a meeting with the Honourable Tom Christensen, MLA to discuss opportunities regarding Vernon’s Lake City Casino becoming a ‘Destination Casino’, together with the creation of a Social Responsibility Fund.'

As I had a part in the concept of a Social Responsibilty fund, first proposing it at the Casino relocation public hearing, I had hoped to hear some debate on this subject. But there appears to be only 3 members of council that decided to attend and a quorum of 4 is needed to establish this as a council meeting. And even if there were more I could have been told that this was a Darkside Meeting and was closed to the public. But even Darkside Meetings must start in the open and are only closed by resolution stated in the open sessions under the applicable section of the community charter.

Our local MLA has met in open session and answered questions from Council before. On Oct 26/06 at a special Friday Cow meeting Mr. Tom Christensen, MLA Okanagan, updated Council on the items of a June 19 2006 open council meeting. So it appears that open meetings with Council are used on a regular basis. I guess because the MLA couldn't draw a crowd to support a quorum then the meeting officially never occurred and no minutes etc. were taken and an open session was not necessary.