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“I’m concerned about a decision I learned of last week to decline a request for a delegation to speak to the board of trustees,” Damianopoulos said of the request.

“The impacts of declining to hear them publicly are very real, including shutting down public discussion, failure to listen, lack of transparency and allowing administrative procedures to trump our policy intentions on public delegations, which emphasizes our desire to listen,” he said.

“As I stand up for their right to speak, I would equally speak up for any delegation that wished to speak on matters in the public interest. No trustee is obligated to agree with the delegation, we must however hear them out.”

Monique Forster, board chair, said the delegation was denied because it focused on a subject that was not scheduled to be discussed on that night’s agenda.

“The subject matter of this delegation is not something that’s being discussed this evening, it’s not an agenda item, therefore, it has no place in this meeting,” she said, noting that the written material provided by the applicants, which is required to be presented verbatim during the delegation, was passed on to all trustees.

“The information that was provided to us has been shared with all trustees, just as it was intended to be,” Forster said. “So, it has in fact, been presented to trustees in writing, as a written delegation.”

Trustee Morgan Ste. Marie seconded a motion from Damianopoulos to have the delegation approved for another meeting, but it was voted down by trustees.