It’ll be two sessions, one starting mid-morning, the other at maybe 5 PM.  Both sessions being limited to a maximum of four hours, since gatherings like these qualify as official council “meetings” and are therefore required to adhere to the procedural rules listed in Clerk Carolynn Errett’s Little Red Book of Municipal Procedure, available at fine bookstores nowhere.  

That shouldn’t amount to any sort of problem, because, honestly, four hours is more than enough for an exercise in transparency and accountability, as well as simply putting faces to the various political and staff positions that are behind the day-to-day workings of the Corporation of the Town of Renfrew.  Offering two such gatherings is, in my mind, more than generous, so I applaud the effort to hold an event such as this, to close any gaps between the citizens/taxpayers and the staff and political types who govern their municipal affairs.

I’m talking about what has been referred to as a Structured Town Hall, where residents can come out to learn more about how they’re governed and to provide some measure of background to various points of concern and/or curiosity people may have with policy, policy direction, decision-making, and all the other stuff that’s part of running a town, or any other place for that matter.