The article regarding the OneHockey tournament feud between the City of Spruce Grove and the Spruce Grove Chamber of Commerce by Naeema Siddiqua in the November 5th 2010 issue of the Spruce Grove Examiner raises a number of questions to this reader.

The article states that Mayor Houston called a special council meeting on Monday November 1st to clarify the specifics of bringing in the US based for profit OneHockey group in to displace local user groups, to which the Chamber took exception.

Again I found it curious that seemingly the only one that the City notified of the meeting was the reporter from the Examiner. Seems I was naïve to believe my school teachers, teaching that in Canada, the press holds no special privileges above any other citizen.

As I continued reading I chuckled as Mayor Houston was quoted,” I don’t know why it became such an issue”. I guess the Mayor only calls special closed meetings with lawyers in attendance for small meaningless issues. If the issue was so trite why was not the chamber invited first to discuss the matter in the first place before calling a secret meeting.

So at this point in the article I was asking myself what was in the meeting? So I went to the Cities website and took a look at the agenda and the minutes. From the minutes it seems that legal matters were discussed for one hour and forty minutes in closed session. At which time council, now back in open session, affirmed the actions of the City administration regarding the OneHockey tournament, and agreed to invite the Chamber to a workshop to promote a better working relationship.

This seems all fine and dandy but then I read on. Alderman Rothe goes on at length explaining; “In my opinion, the city council and manager have done nothing inappropriate and has done nothing that is in any way contrary to the rights and authority that is provided to them by the Municipal Government Act and the City Manager’s Bylaw.” Two concerns come from this statement. First, to which City Manager’s Bylaw is being referred to? What does it say? How is it relevant? Next if you take a close look at any legislation, and the MGA is no exception, there are many laws and procedures on the books that are out of date or just poor legislation.

Hiding behind the MGA does not necessarily make the administrations actions just and righteous, just legal.

If you look the past posts of this blog you will see that this is not the first time the council and administration have hidden behind the MGA.

So now I am left with wondering what legal matters were discussed and how do these matters involve the chamber. How will it affect my city?

The article and special meeting raise more questions than answers.