Ahead of Stratford's July 8 city council meeting, Councillor Cody Sebben is making it known he’s looking for a better way to deal with the city’s current dilemma.
On the agenda for tonight’s meeting is a Notice of Intent where Coun. Sebben intends to ask his fellow elected officials to suspend the Respectful Workplace Policy and have staff provide options for the review of that policy to council for consideration at a future meeting.
In short, he’s looking for a more constructive path to deal with situations that allow citizens to voice their concerns without fear of being silenced.
“I put this Notice of Motion forward because I’ve heard concerns from a lot of people about the individuals being banned and the policy’s implementation,” he said. “I’ve also heard that some people have been getting notices from the city based on their comments they’ve made at a meeting or things like that. In my opinion, this is causing an atmosphere where people are becoming pretty discouraged from engaging with the council.”
The city’s ban on residents Mike Sullivan and Barb Shaughnessy officially came to an end July 4, with Monday’s meeting marking their first official chance to return to active participation in public discourse since the spring. Sebben is worried that public participation is being curtailed out of fear, and he’s hoping by looking at other options to settle situations similar to this most recent one they can avoid future disruptions.
“The role of the council is to encourage participation of the public, getting them engaged,” he said. “People still need to be respectful. Certainly in the last few months things have been very tense around meetings. Members of the public have been pretty upset about what’s going on and feeling frustrated. Both sides have dug their heels in, and I think we really need to rebuild that public engagement and willingness of people to talk.”
Sebben didn’t agree with the idea that the policy had been misused in this situation and added that staff has done well with the direction they’ve been given. He did say that the policy can be interpreted differently by anyone, and it might be time to look at different options to deal with disagreements when they arise.
“This policy was implemented last year, and I think we really need to pause and evaluate it,” he said. “Dealing with things during meetings is up to the chair. There are rules and a code of conduct that council has, and I really think it’s important that we review the policy and its implementation.”
