By Dan McCaffery for the Sarnia Observer
He was the ‘father of secret meetings’ at Sarnia Council.
Joseph Alexander Bell was the first Mayor in the Municipality’s history to conduct a ‘closed door’ session of Council.
It happened on April 21, 1913, and it created an uproar.
Mayor Bell asked Councillors to ban the press and Public from the Council Chambers that night so Councillors could debate a “sensitive issue” in private.
Alderman William Proctor was outraged, “I am opposed to this star chamber way of doing things”, he said. “The Public has the right to be here and listen to any business this Council has to transact”.
Proctor asked that newspaper reporters be allowed to stay but Mayor Bell rejected the idea, declaring, “the people will get a full report if they come to the next meeting of Council and hear the minutes read”.
Council voted 10-6 to support the Mayor.
The Observer was highly critical, declaring “to the discredit of Mayor Bell the closure was enacted for the first time in the history of the Sarnia Council, Citizens were excluded, leaving the supposed ‘servants of the people ‘free to transact the Town’s business behind closed doors”.
Quoting unnamed sources, the newspaper provided readers with a blow-by-blow account of what went on at the closed meeting. It turned out Council had spent 90 minutes secretly debating how to best enforce liquor laws.
Bell, who was born in Strathroy in 1869, moved to Camlachie as a young man in order to become a teacher. After graduating from medical school he became a Sarnia Doctor.
He may not have appreciated the value of an informed electorate, but Bell was a dedicated public servant. When the First World War broke out in 1914, the 48-year old joined the Canadian Army Medical Corps, went to France and treated wounded soldiers just behind the front lines.
After the war he became local Medical Officer of Health. He died on April 12, 1937, at age 68, leaving behind a wife and three children.