OpinionJoey’s Notepad: My Correspondence to the Hamilton Public Library Board Suggesting Better Deadlines for Public Delegation Requests

The Hamilton Public Library Board is reviewing its governing by-laws during their upcoming November 18, 2026 meeting.

The amendments include changes that will permit the public to make requests to delegate to the Board following the publication of meeting agendas. Presently, the Library Board requires delegates to registered at least seven (7) days in advance of meetings. However, the Board does not release its agendas until five (5) days before meetings.

The Board is reviewing a proposal to change their delegation request deadline to be 48 hours before a meeting. I have submitted they should align with City Council’s procedural bylaw and permit delegation requests until 12:00 p.m. (noon) the day prior to a meeting.

The following is the text of my correspondence.

Correspondence to the Library Board

Dear Members of the Hamilton Public Library Board,

I am writing regarding the proposed revisions to the Library Board By-Laws for the Regulation of the Business of the Board. I am submitting this written delegation to the Board because, with a certain amount of irony, the current Board processes preclude me from registering to provide a verbal delegation in time for this meeting.

As many of you are aware, I provided the public with the first-ever livestreams of the HPL Board meetings and attend the majority of them in person.

I am respectfully submitting suggestions for amendments:

• That Section 6.08 state that Library Board meetings are open to the public in accordance with Section 16.1 of the Public Libraries Act; and
• That Section 6.08.03 be amended to mirror the delegation registration deadline used by Hamilton City Council.

Section 6.08

As currently written, Section 6.08 states: “Members of the public are permitted to attend regular meetings.” By contrast, Section 16.1 of the Public Libraries Act establishes that the public has the right to observe “any regular, special, committee or other meeting of the board.”

While the Library Board has not interpreted its own by-law restrictively in practice, updating Section 6.08 to both reflect and cite Section 16.1 of the Act is practical and removes the present conflict between the wording of the by-law and provincial legislation.

Section 6.08.03

The proposed amendment to Section 6.08.03 (Delegation Requests) is a positive step toward correcting the impracticality of the current by-law. Presently, the by-law requires delegates to request status seven (7) calendar days in advance of a meeting, even though the agenda is not published until five (5) calendar days prior. This creates an obvious paradox: the public cannot know if they wish to delegate on an agenda item before the agenda exists.

While the proposed amendment—”no later than 48 hours prior to the start of the meeting”—is an improvement, I respectfully submit that the amended wording should read: “no later than 12:00 p.m. (noon) on the day prior to the meeting.”

Aligning the Library Board’s deadline with Hamilton City Council’s procedure is more practical for three reasons:

1. Aligning with Hamilton City Council’s procedural by-law provides Hamiltonians with consistency in how we engage with local governing bodies. Many residents are familiar with Council’s registration rules and may assume that a board funded by the City of Hamilton and appointed by Council operates with the same deadlines.
2. Differing deadlines create a risk of public confusion via AI-generated search summaries. Because large language models are probability-based, automated search tools could misinform residents about HPL’s cut-off time due to the models having ingested large amounts of City Council information and media coverage reporting the Council delegation deadline.
3. The timeline between agenda publication and a 48-hour cut-off leaves the public with very few business hours to review materials and decide whether to delegate. Presently, Board agendas are published late on the Friday preceding a Wednesday meeting. If local media reports on an agenda item, the earliest the public will typically read that coverage is Monday. 
   
   A 48-hour cut-off (Monday evening) means many residents will remain unaware of an item until after the deadline has passed.
   
   The difference between the proposed 48-hour rule and a noon day-prior deadline represents just four business hours for administrative processing. For the public, however, those additional 18 hours effectively double the narrow window available to file a delegation request.

In closing, I commend the Board for updating its by-law.

Sincerely,

Joey Coleman
Hamiltonian
Publisher, ThePublicRecord.ca

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Published: November 14, 2026
Last updated: November 14, 2026
Author: Joey Coleman

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