Daytime friends and nightime lovers

I have been unofficially lobbying, half-heartedly and half-jokingly, for the past nine some-odd years to have regular Town council meetings moved from the evening to the mornings, similar to the standing committee meetings.In a lifetime of community journalism that involves countless evening assignments and goofy hours, having the Town of Hinton move their regular council meetings to the daytime meant that, at the very least, there would be 22 more nights and around 60 more hours a year where I wouldn't have to work.

Instead, there has been some recent discussion in certain circles to switch standing committee meetings from daytime to night time. In other words, the exact opposite of what I had hoped. If that change comes to fruition with the next council it would add another 22 nights and estimated 60 hours of after-hours coverage from what we have now and an extra 44 nights and 120 from what I hoped in my heart of hearts would one day be the standard.

One of those proponents, Coun. Ryan Maguhn, tried unsuccessfully to get the standing committee time changed to the evening by forwarding an amendment at the October 2012 organizational meeting. Now, it should be noted by everyone that Maguhn has had difficulty making a lot of standing committee meetings in the last half of his tenure since being elected in February 2012. You can ask him why it's been a challenge to make these midday meetings, but I imagine it is related to his work dynamic as a teacher at Gerard Redmond. You can also ask him how he has tried to remain effective while missing a majority of standing committee meetings over the last while. His attendance since October 2012, and those of the rest of council, is in the table below:

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So by the attendance chart displayed above, it seems Maguhn has missed a lot of the initial discussions at standing committee, but not the final discussions and decisions at council. He said he canvasses a number of people, including fellow councillors, so he may provide some input leading up to standing committee discussions he couldn't attend. He also said he gets feedback on the discussions afterward so that he can adequately prepare for when issues come to regular council meetings. For those of you unfamiliar with how council works, major decisions like budgets and projects always come before standing committee for discussion and deliberation before they are forwarded to regular council, where final decisions are made.

I think Maguhn needs to find ways to make more standing committee meetings and I hope that between him and his employer something can be worked out to better position Maguhn to make more of those daytime meetings if he is re-elected in October. To be fair to Maguhn, he has put forth more effort to understand the issues than some others I've seen at the table since I began to cover council in spring 2004. I always get the impression that he has put some independent thought into the major issues, so I'll give him credit for that, but it's harder to change minds with your perspective when you're not at the table, so I think he needs to be there more often. I really hope he can. For those of you who are wondering, councillors are paid a base amount for their general work, and paid separately for attendance at meetings. Stories related to how councillors and the mayor will be paid after the next election can be found here and here.

Which brings us back to the related issue of moving standing committee back to the evenings. Maguhn does make an interesting point about how daytime meetings make it more challenging for those with daytime jobs to enter the political sphere. It's something I hadn't thought too much about before, but if you look at the makeup of council you will see nobody else that holds a 9-5 gig. One current councillor, Dale Currie, is a shift worker who has been given considerations by his employer to make midday meetings when possible. Everyone else currently has scheduling flexibility.

Looking back, Stephen Mitchell had a full time gig as executive director and head of maintenance for the Hinton Golf Club, and while that was a lot of hours, being the boss meant he controlled his own time, to some extent, as well. The majority of council in recent memory – with the only other exception being Mike Jodoin - have been retired or in other situations that didn't necessitate fixed hours or answering to an employer.

So maybe there is some validity to the point that the council gig - including daytime meetings – demands somebody with more flexibility to their schedule, making it prohibitive for a lot of people and reducing the variety of perspectives on council. I don't know how far I'd take that argument, but it's an interesting theory that may have some legs.

There's also been talk that moving standing committee to the evening would foster a stronger democracy through greater transparency as the public would be better able to attend the meetings. That sentiment seems a little too simplistic in its idealism for me and blurs what's important.

I think the standing committee meeting priority should be to find a venue and a time where council and administration can best come together to get work done effectively, with the priority being what works best for council, then administration, then the public.

The meetings are already open to the public, though it was correctly pointed out that the committee room is not necessarily a venue that is welcoming. It's not like council chambers where they are lined up facing the public gallery, it takes place around a board table where they are facing inward, which is good, because that best facilitates discussion among them.

However, I'm not saying more transparency is bad or that status quo is good enough. I think the full content of these discussions should be more accessible to the public by having at least a rudimentary recording of the proceedings that can be placed online for review, similar to regular council meetings, but without the multiple camera angles.

The online recordings of the regular council meetings regularly receive more than 100 views and some as high as 400. That's not to mention what Shaw viewership is for their replaying of council proceedings on Wednesdays at 6 pm and Saturdays at 1 pm. So maybe that's a solution to consider to create more ability for people to get access to standing committee discussions.

For those wondering where Hinton stacks up compared to our neighbours in democracy, Yellowhead County holds its regular and standing committee meetings at 9:30 am on Tuesdays. Jasper holds their regular council meetings at 1:30 pm on Tuesdays and Edson holds their regular meetings Tuesdays, alternating between 1:30 pm and 7:30 pm. So in the sense of meeting timing, Hinton stacks up pretty well compared to other councils in our region with regard to accessibility and openness in the decision-making process.