You won't find city councillors peeking down at their BlackBerrys sending text messages or tweets.
Council has asked administration to change its procedure bylaws so members are prohibited from sending external texts or using electronic communication like Twitter during meetings.
"To me, it's a procedure we need to nail down sooner rather than later," said Mayor Nolan Crouse who introduced the subject Monday. "We have an obligation to be transparent to the public."
The issue was raised during a review of council's procedures bylaw. Other changes approved included allowing council advisory groups a maximum of 10 minutes to speak, up from five minutes previously.
As for texts and tweet restrictions, Crouse said he got the idea from a resident. He's also aware of problems in other North American municipalities where councillors have used text messages to covertly communicate voting strategies or using Twitter to talk about what is going during meetings.
Corporate services general manager Dean Screpnek said texts exchanged between councillors, as well as the use of Twitter and Facebook, would need to be part of the public record in order to maintain transparency during meetings.
"One of the challenges would be how to incorporate the text data in terms of public record," Screpnek told council, adding that they would need to be part of the sequence of council discussions in the meeting.
New technology
Chief legislative officer Chris Belke later said he never heard of a municipality in Alberta having issues with electronic communications during council meetings. He added there are no current issues with the technology in St. Albert, said the policy would help stop a problem before it happened.
"It's still relatively new technology," said Belke. "I think it's clear that council doesn't think [it] should use that form of communications in [meetings]."
Jerry Ward, a spokesman with Alberta Municipal Affairs, said any policies regarding conduct of council during meetings are dictated by each municipality and not by the province.
He noted a recent ruling in the legislature stopped MLAs from using similar technology during Question Period, though that doesn't extend to municipalities.
Coun. James Burrows was the only council member to vote against the motion. If future councillors chose to have a laptop or other electronic device during the meeting, others might think they are using it for the wrong reasons.
"That would almost infer, because they have a laptop right here, that they are communicating with someone out of chambers or not part of council," Burrows said. "I trust that the people who sit here are responsible enough to not do this."
Belke later said the rule would have to be approved again by council once administration has found a location for the policy within the city's current bylaw structure.
