Timmins city council was without arguably the biggest critic of the Stars and Thunder Festival Tuesday night.

But that didn’t mean a discussion on transparency on the way it’s organized didn’t go without some intriguing back-and-forth.

Councillor Noella Rinaldo expressed some deep frustration in not knowing who to turn to for questions.

And in an effort to look at the festival on a long-term basis, she adds Mayor Steve Black shouldn’t be working as the Festival Chair.

“First of all, we never decided that,” Rinaldo said after the meeting, “We don’t have a committee to have a chair, so that’s part of the confusion.”

She says the Mayor is obviously involved in the process and is doing a good job. But notes the structure has to change.

“If this was a Public Works issue, the Mayor would not be having the same input and he shouldn’t be,” she noted.

“And if this is a ‘project’ that someone is having, whose got the project? That’s the confusion, I don’t know where it sits.”

She says if they’re strictly dealing with city employees, it should be CAO Dave Landers that speaks for them.

“We’re kind of just going with the flow (right now), and I’m uncomfortable with that,” Rinaldo adds.

During the meeting, Mayor Steve Black tried clearing up confusion by announcing a list of committees for the festival will be sent to council.

He says there’s over 100 people working on the festival itself with numerous committees.

But he adds any questions from council should be directed at the CAO, so he can go to the right person and make sure there’s no overlap and a committee chair isn’t forced to answer the same question multiple times.

Black adds any aspect of the festival can go to council for discussion…unless it has to do with entertainment.

He says acts don’t want their dollar figures and overall contract negotiations debated around the table, as it could cause issues.

That in itself opens a can of worms because the Mayor says they had to deal with the Ontario Ombudsman in the past because they had discussions of that nature in-camera.

Landers’ report to council suggests they should stick with the Committee of the Whole approach, but also work with community partners to host input sessions.

He says while council doesn’t feel like they had opportunities for input, they really did when monthly presentations were coming to them ahead of the event.

The CAO made two recommendations: have Tourism Timmins solicit input via email or social media and partner with the Timmins Chamber of Commerce to host community conversations.

CLICK HERE to see the full near-hour long discussion, under Item 4H.

Filed under: Local News