“Any opportunity that we have where we can encourage dialogue between us and the folks that put us here is a good thing. I think that transparency is not just a one-way street. It’s about a dialogue and not a monologue and something like a question period gives us the opportunity to hear directly from citizens in a very timely fashion about agenda items.”
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“Any opportunity that we have where we can encourage dialogue between us and the folks that put us here is a good thing. I think that transparency is not just a one-way street. It’s about a dialogue and not a monologue and something like a question period gives us the opportunity to hear directly from citizens in a very timely fashion about agenda items.”
“Any opportunity that we have where we can encourage dialogue between us and the folks that put us here is a good thing. I think that transparency is not just a one-way street. It’s about a dialogue and not a monologue and something like a question period gives us the opportunity to hear directly from citizens in a very timely fashion about agenda items.”
— Former Brandon mayor Shari Decter Hirst
For the last 15 years, Brandonites have been given the opportunity to address our elected municipal officials during a community question period at each regular city council meeting.
The idea was first brought forward by then-Richmond-ward councillor Stephen Montague, who pushed for a way to allow the public to question specific items that appeared on that evening’s council agenda.
The idea was that having 15 or so minutes during a meeting set aside for public input would allow a timely way for people to express their views or concerns on a certain issue that council was about to debate. This system would be different than formal delegations and presentations, which required — and still require — prior notification to council, and several days’ advance notice.
“In the current procedure bylaw, the way it is is residents may appear in front of council in the form of a delegation, but the deadline for delegation is Wednesday at noon,” Montague said in a Nov. 29 council meeting in 2010. “The agendas are released in the afternoon on Friday, so there is a two-day disconnect between when the agendas come out and when a delegation can be filed.
“That limits the public’s ability to publicly question council on the agenda’s items.”
