City council has agreed to reimburse the Moose Jaw Co-operative Association — Moose Jaw Co-op — over a “consumption error,” but any hard details about the deal are being kept confidential.
During its Nov. 27 executive committee meeting, council voted during a closed-door — in-camera — session to give utility account 45160011.002, under the association’s name, a 50-per-cent credit to address “the actual consumption error,” the minutes show.
When the minutes were brought up during the Dec. 4 regular meeting, Coun. Heather Eby asked that the motion be voted upon again. She said she voted against it during the previous meeting because she thought council should have given a higher percentage or amount to the organization.
While Eby was unable to say more about the topic because council had discussed it behind closed doors, she brought it up because she wanted members of the association and taxpayers to know about this.
Coun. Kim Robinson said he voted against it during the in-camera executive session because he thought council should have followed its bylaw that says it can only go back a year when offering reimbursements.
Council then asked city solicitor Andrew Svenson for legal advice about how much information members could say in public about a business they had discussed privately.
“What you say in a public meeting is no longer in-camera,” he replied.
Unsatisfied with this answer, Eby asked finance director Brian Acker how council should proceed since he had the most seniority.
In cases such as this that involve a utility account, that data is private information, which means city hall is not allowed even under Local Authority Freedom of Information Act (LAFOIP) legislation to release information to the public less the account agrees to it, said Acker. Therefore, council and city administration are “really, very limited” in what they can say or release.
Council then voted 5-2 to re-approve the motion; Robinson and Eby were opposed.
The Moose Jaw Express attempted to ask city hall for more information about the matter, such as when the consumption error happened, how it happened, whether it was a power or water error, and how much money the Co-op would receive as a credit. However, a spokesman confirmed that the municipality could not divulge any more details.
The next regular council meeting is Monday, Dec. 18.
