City council has 12 advisory committees made up of regular citizens who apply for appointment. They work for free and their job is to provide common sense suggestions – and often real expertise – to a variety of subjects from agriculture to trees. You can find generic explanations of the work of each committee here.

In mid-December at its regular meeting, the Trees and Forests Advisory Committee passed a motion asking that the city develop a web page for each advisory committee where agendas and reports could be posted “for the benefit of the committee members and the public.”

The suggestion came before city council’s environment and transportation committee this week. The idea wasn’t flat-out rejected, but it wasn’t exactly given high-fives either.  The point is, they shouldn't have to beg. Information of this kind should be routinely posted on the city's website.

Why this hasn’t happened already is a mystery to me. The technology is not complicated and the city has the capacity to do it in buckets. A protocol to cover what should or shouldn’t be posted could be drafted in under an hour with time out for tea. It could all be set up so the advisory committees themselves maintained the sites, something at least a few of them are willing to do.

Every time one of these information issues surfaces, the impression one gets, whether real or imagined, is that city council and the city administration really do not want the citizens of London to know everything that’s going on. Either that, or they simply can’t be bothered to expend the effort to get the job done – which, in a way, is even worse.

When you meet your candidates in this election you should hammer them on this point. Get a commitment for full disclosure of civic information in a timely, relevant and accessible way.

By the way, the city has finally posted a list of nominations for mayor and councillors. You’ll find it here.

So far there are two candidates for the top job – Anne Marie DeCicco-Best, who is seeking her fourth consecutive term, and Cynthia Etheridge, who finished a distant third in the last election. As of last night there were no candidates nominated in Wards 2, 5, 6, 12 or 14. Except for Ward 14 there are incumbents who will most probably run again, although Nancy Branscombe in Ward 5 is still considering whether to try for the mayor’s job.