By JIMMY LAWTON

OGDENSBURG – Non-confidential city council updates are now available on the city’s website prior to council meetings.

City Manager Sarah Purdy said she made the decision on her own, despite a previous consensus from the board to keep the updates private.

“I made the decision,” Purdy said.

Purdy said the updates will now be available on the website at the same time they are sent to city councilors. She said there has been a lot of attention paid to the issue and that this is a way for the city to move forward.

Among the information included in the public update is this statement from Purdy regarding her decision to release it publicly prior to meetings.

“Given the continued discussion about dissemination of update information, I am changing the approach to the update. From now on the update will contain no confidential information, and will be posted to the city website at the same time that it is given to Council. Any confidential information will be handled through a separate confidential memo given only to council, and also to any department heads as needed. The confidential memo will be posted only to councilors in the same way all past updates have been disseminated.”

Ogdensburg city councilors receive updates from the city manager prior to council meetings that include information on spending, problems with equipment, potential purchases and information relating to resolutions and presentations that will be discussed at public meetings.

The updates can also contain information that is protected from the public view. The confidential information will be sent to city councilors in private memos and will not be included in the public updates.

In January the city denied a freedom of information request for a council update setting the stage for a lengthy debate regarding transparency and whether or not the public should have access to the routine information included in the update.

Councilors Michael Morley and Brian Mitchell had supported Purdy’s original call to release the information at a previous board meeting, while councilors Timothy Davis, David Price, Jennifer Stevenson and Dan Skamperle said they would prefer to keep the council updates internal.

With that consensus the majority of councilors directed Purdy to instead issue press releases regarding the update when they contained information she deemed of interest to the public.

Davis later said he would reconsider his stance as he could see the benefit in releasing the public portions of the update.

Mayor Wayne Ashley, who has missed several meetings due to health issues, had remained silent on the issue until Monday when he said the decision should be up to Purdy and the council should trust her to do her job.

“She runs the day to day operations of the city,” he said.

Ashley says the issue has drawn negative attention from the public and divided the city council. He said the council needs to be united in its support for the new city manager.

Purdy though had already made the decision to release the council update, which was available on the city website prior to the Monday meeting.

Councilor Skamperle, who had opposed releasing the updates to the public, took the opportunity Monday to slam the local press, accusing the local media outlets of printing “ridiculous” articles. He encouraged residents to compare the city council’s recorded meetings with the news stories that have been written.

The videos can be found here http://www.ogdensburg.org/DocumentCenter/View/1783

Price backed Skamperle’s call, saying that while he trusts the public, he does not want information to be manipulated by the press.

Morley pointed out that the new system is very much like the plan Purdy had proposed originally and offered his support. Morley said he is now looking forward to moving on to other issues.

Councilor Mitchell said the updates contain routine information, but will allow the city residents to see how much work city staff is actually accomplishing.

Purdy said the best way to ensure the information is not manipulated, is to release it to the public.

The updates can be found at http://www.ogdensburg.org/Archive.aspx?AMID=52