Notes on TMMIS

TMMIS (Toronto Meeting Management Information System) does not have a spec or explainer section that describes exactly what some of its finer points. I've have quite a few email interactions with the Toronto City Clerks' office, and thought I'd start recording things I'd learned for posterity.

• Linked from the meetingCalendarViewList page's daily "more details" link, we can access hidden calendarCellView page. Some aspects are not obvious.
  • Under "Meeting Status", the status In Recess (will Resume) is used for:
    • short recesses (e.g., a 5 minute recess during a meeting)
    • meetings scheduled over multiple days (e.g., a Council meeting)
    • during lunch breaks (approx 12:30-1:30pm for committees; 12:30-2:00pm for Council)

_{Source: Private email with Matthew Green, City Clerk's Office}

• Each agenda item has what I've informally called an "agenda item type", viewable in the item header:
  • ACTION
  • Information
  • Presentation

I wasn't clear on the distinction, and so I sent an email to the Clerk's Office. This was the helpful reply I again received from Matthew Green:

Generally, Action items are seeking some kind of direction or resolution from Council or Committee; usually there are proposed recommendations which Council or Committee can adopt or amend by vote.

An Information Report is a City official's report that advises and informs without recommending. A vote is required to dispose of the item (i.e., normally, a motion to receive the item). The Council Procedure by-law outlines the procedures surrounding Information Reports and on a Motion to Receive For Information. Section 27-143 is the rule specific to Information Reports at committee:

http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/municode/1184_027.pdf

Similarly, an item marked Presentation is normally a verbal update, a ceremonial presentation or presentations to the committee without a covering report, such as slide presentations or playing of videos. There would also be a vote to dispose of the item. You'll see a lot of Presentation items at Economic Development Committee. Here are the minutes from the last committee where you can see the committee's disposition on a number of presentation items:

http://app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewPublishedReport.do?function=getMinutesReport&meetingId=10971

And it is correct that the only item classifications we have are Action, Information or Presentation.

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• The r query param in some urls does not affect the rendering of the page. It is simply a way to resolve client-side caching issues. _{Source: Private email with Dino Skordoulis, City Clerk's Office}