West Nipissing Mayor says March 19th meeting of council was legal

The Ombudsman’s office is looking into whether West Nipissing council held an illegal meeting.

The office has notified the municipality that it’s investigating complaints that a meeting held March 19^th did not comply with the Municipal Act of 2001 that deals with rules on open meetings.

The Ombudsman has assigned an officer from its Open Meetings Team who will soon contact the municipal clerk to get more information about the meeting.

MyWestNipisingNow.com contacted Mayor Joanne Savage who says the March 19th meeting conformed to the legislation and furthermore, proper notice was given about the meeting.

Savage says the meeting was an in-camera item and was originally to have been discussed in closed session at the meeting of March 12^th.

Notice of the March 12^th meeting went out four days prior.

However on the night of the 12^th, Savage says time constraints prevented council from dealing with the in-camera item.

She says the decision was made to defer it to March 19^th.

The Mayor adds before the meeting of the 19^th, an agenda went out on the 15^th detailing the closed meeting subject matter.

Savage also says on the matter regarding the in-camera debate, it was not a budget meeting nor were any decisions made regarding the affairs of the municipality.