City officials want council to shine more light on the secretive process of appointing citizens to the boards of city agencies.

Two years after a controversy over ’s backroom meddling in the appointment processMayor Rob Ford’s backroom meddling in the appointment process, the office of city clerk Ulli Watkiss has asked council in a new report to start publicly revealing the names of everyone who has been recommended for a board post.

The clerk’s office also recommends that council begin debating the appointments at open meetings rather than behind closed doors.

At present, the names of the winning candidates — for the governing bodies of everything from the public library system to Toronto Hydro — are kept confidential until after the council votes and the oft-contentious pre-vote debates are held “in camera.”

The votes themselves are held in public. But the public never knows who is being voted on: the motion always says something like, “City council appoint the individual listed in Confidential Attachment 1.”

The city, the clerk said, currently treats board applications like applications for employment — though “seeking appointment to a board shares many characteristics of seeking elected office.”

Revealing the names would allow for “increased public scrutiny of council decision-making,” eliminate “effort to keep information confidential,” and ensure “greater compliance with the open meeting rules under the City of Toronto Act,” the clerk said.

Under the proposal, the names of people who were not recommended by the nominating committee would remain secret. Only the people who made it to the final stage — the council debate — would be identified.

The executive committee will consider the proposal at its meeting next week. Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong, a member of the executive and the civic appointments committee, said he sees no reason council shouldn’t approve.

“Whenever you can disclose more information, it improves the process, I think. The more information you can disclose, the better,” he said.

It is conceivable that the possibility of public rejection could deter elite candidates from applying. Councillor Shelley Carroll said the city should do a comprehensive examination of the process after the election and let the new council make the decision, rather than undertaking major changes now.

Carroll (Ward 33 Don Valley East) said public disclosure of names could leave councillors vulnerable to legal action, since they are always warned that they could be seen to harm the reputations of unsuccessful candidates for paid jobs simply by revealing that those people were rejected.

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“For most of our boards there is no remuneration, but we could still hurt their reputation. I want to hear from the city solicitor on that,” Carroll said.

“We may not simply take up (the clerk’s) first recommendation. But she has at least flagged for us that we have to examine some kind of change.”