After a lengthy in-camera session on Thursday, Lac La Biche County councillors are remaining tight-lipped about the contents of the 65-page final report presented to them earlier in the week by the consulting firm of Russell Farmer and Associates. County officials are saying it will be at least four more days before the public gets to see the contents of the review.
The review was called for by council soon after they took office following last October's municipal election. Over the span of several months, the culmination of dozens of interviews with community members and staff, reading through responses to on-line questionnaires and one-on-one interviews with councillors, the draft plan of recommendations was presented to the council members on Tuesday.
Two days later, council members were going through the report and preparing it for the public.
Following Thursday's in-camera session, two motions were made by council to deal with the report. The first decision was to meet with the municipality's chief administrative officer to go over the report and review the recommendations made within it. The second motion was to wait until next Tuesday before showing it first to municipal staff and then making it available to the general public.
Councillor Aurel Langevin, the chairman of the committee overseeing the report, realizes the community would like to see the contents of the report, but said it has needed some minor 'tweaking' before being ready for public consumption.
"There's a few things that have to be restructured in the final report. It's nothing that affects the recommendations, but it needs to be done to make it more presentable," he said. "The intent is to get it into the public's hands by Tuesday."
By relaying the contents of the report to staff before officially releasing it is a "courtesy" to the municipal staff, he said.
The organizational review is a common practice in organizations and has been used regularly as a tool to determine strengths and weaknesses of those organizations. Had councillors not called for one immediately after taking office, county officials say one would have been held within a few months anyway.
