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The City of Edmonton last summer silently reneged on a promise to post council memos online, but changed course after this newspaper asked why.
Memos sent from administrators to city council have been available online since 2017. The city began releasing these documents regularly that June after Postmedia requested copies of all memos through a freedom of information request arguing they should be available to the public.
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These emails and letters include updates on infrastructure and other city projects, responses to contentious topics being debated in public or reported by the news media, significant staffing updates, and reports or research requested by council members.
Memos were published on the city’s open data website, which has won awards for transparency. However, the city stopped releasing this information without warning or explanation on Aug. 1, 2023. The last memo released was dated May 31, 2023.
But the city updated the online memo databank on Thursday, about one month after the Edmonton Journal asked why the city stopped publishing these documents as promised. Nearly 200 memos spanning eight months were released.
The Journal had asked the city on Feb. 12 who made the decision to halt publication and for the rationale behind the change, requesting copies of all memos sent to council since May 31, 2023.
Communications adviser Kris Berezanski said publication would resume soon.
“The open data page with council memos will be updated in the next couple of days. The first batch will include those from June to December of 2023. They will be updated on a monthly basis going forward,” he stated Feb. 20.
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Asked a few days later for an update, Berezanski forwarded a March 4 email from the city clerk’s office which said the way these documents are archived and released has changed. The review process with the city’s freedom of information and privacy office was altered as well.
The memo website will now be updated monthly rather than quarterly, Berezanski said.
“All memos from June 2023 to January 2024 were submitted to open data to be uploaded the week of Feb. 19. They should be up soon,” he stated.
Ward papastew Coun. Michael Janz said he didn’t realize memos weren’t being published anymore when asked about the change at an event on Feb. 23. He was under the impression there was about a 90-day window between when councillors get the memos and when are made public, and this was simply a delay.
“I never saw anything that said, ‘Memos are no longer going to be posted,’” he said in an interview. “It seems more of a peculiarity than anything else.”
Asked if he thinks they should be made available online, Janz said “yes.”
“Yes. It’s public information, it’s all open, unless it’s a confidential memo,” he said. “Sometimes a memo is a way (for councillors) to get rapid information — like how much has our transit ridership gone up, or how many issues have we had with multi-unit composting? You can get data very quickly.
“I find memos incredibly useful, and yes they should be public. I assumed they would be.”
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