The camera will be turned on again at city finance meetings.
Nanaimo city council voted Monday to record finance and audit committee meetings moving forward.
The meetings hadn’t been recorded since September, with city staff noting that there was no policy in place for videotaping the meetings.
“What happened was we had an inconsistency,” said Victor Mema, deputy chief administrative officer. “For some reason we were recording finance and audit when we weren’t recording other committees … we obviously would have preferred that you had a direction that covered all committees, but council does what council sees best.”
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Coun. Diane Brennan noted that not only is finance and audit an important committee, but it’s also one that consists of all members of city council.
“There are no other committees that we have that are committees of the whole and I think that’s what distinguishes it from other committees,” she said.
Coun. Ian Thorpe agreed, adding that he doesn’t see a need to record all city committee meetings.
“All of our committees, including this one, simply bring forward recommendations to council for discussion and decisions,” he said. “To me, recording of committees is not a huge priority.”
Coun. Bill Bestwick had put forward the motion to record finance and audit committee meetings, though he was absent Monday when it came before council. The motion passed unanimously. Coun. Gord Fuller gave notice that he would be bringing forward a motion regarding recording of other committees.
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