May 19, 2010

MEMORANDUM

TO: Members of the Municipal Planning Commission, Administrative Staff,  Public

FROM:  Chair of the Municipal Planning Commission

SUBJECT:   Move to Decision-Making in Private

At a previous MPC meeting, it was proposed that the deliberation portion of Municipal Planning Commission be held in private, WITHOUT the public being present.  Technically, it is identical to that process which is completed by the Subdivision and Development Appeal Board.

This option is provided for in the Municipal Government Act, Section 197(2.1), and from the perspective of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIP), Administration has asked MPC to consider this process.

As members of a Commission, our sole responsibility it is to ensure that all applications heard adhere to the Vulcan County Land Use Bylaw.  Each presentation should be judged on it’s own merit, and solely based on the information presented. 

While the MPC expects that each applicants submission is complete, and can stand on it’s own, there are times that Administration needs to share information with the MPC that cannot be disclosed in a public forum.

For example: Administration may be aware that the application has legal implications that cannot discussed in public.  Therefore, under the FOIP Act, Administration can share information only in private.

FOIP regulations and guidelines repeatedly recommend that, where there is a possibility of personal information being discussed, those discussions should NOT take place in public but, rather, in private.

Rather than have the applicant being declined upon initial application, when a simple discussion in private may supply that remedy, Vulcan County MPC is choosing to move to in private deliberations.

Therefore, beginning with the Municipal Planning Commission meeting held on May 19, 2010, and all meetings in the future, the Vulcan County MPC shall hear all applications in public, then adjourn from the public portion of the meeting, to deliberate and make decisions in meetings closed to the public.

As a courtesy to the applicants, the MPC shall endeavor to have a written decision available no later than three (3) working days after the MPC meeting.