Transparency wins the day

As we become increasingly computer-oriented and dependent upon information available on the Internet, the City of Westmount has taken another small step into cyber space — and become more transparent as a result.

Now the audio recordings of council meetings are complete, and will henceforth be available in their entirety on the City's web site. This may not be huge news, for the City has been doing this since April of last year. But when these recordings first appeared, it was pointed out that the public question periods would be omitted, ostensibly for reasons of privacy.

The prevailing wisdom at the time dictated that residents who stood up and asked a question should not have their name, address and opinion "broadcast" on the Internet.

The result was a relatively dull — some went so far as to say useless — recording of the mayor and councillors reciting reports or proposing, seconding and passing motions. Most of these formal agenda items are important, to be sure, but they are of deep burning interest only to those half-dozen or so residents who attend every council meeting.

The question period before and after each meeting, when residents get up to the mike and bring matters of concern to public attention, provide the real news and drama to these meetings — and if a resident is reluctant to speak out publicly, they have every right to approach their councillor in private.

Those who attended last week's SRO council meeting would agree that an audio recording of the agenda items only — without any of the passionate arena/pool controversy or flooding complaints voiced by residents during question period — would provide a hilariously inaccurate account of the meeting. But now anyone can visit the site and hear all the shouting, applause and anguish that made it the liveliest council meeting in recent memory. All the snap, crackle and popular opinion is there, preserved for posterity and the public good. And you can be sure that no one who spoke during the question periods was concerned about privacy. If anything, they were more than happy to voice these legitimate concerns during this tumultuous period — and you can be sure many of them have already logged onto the City's web site to hear themselves.