Leaders ignoring their duty to citizens

We depend on our leaders. And while there are many community leaders among us, none are so prominent as our elected municipal councillors. Municipal elected representatives are given the opportunity to set policies which govern our growth, our quality of life, the priority of the various services offered within our municipality and our image as a municipality.
Yes, our elected representatives operate within the rules and guidelines set by the province but our municipal politicians are far from powerless. If there were no decisions to be made, it is safe to say that no one would seek election as a municipal councillor.
It is therefore discouraging and a blatant sign of ignorance and utter disregard for their citizens that Hawkesbury councillors are unwilling to share something as important as a draft budget with their citizens, not to mention the press, which acts as an information gatherer on behalf of citizens.
Perhaps councillors discussed in private that notion that citizens should not have the right to see the draft budget document, outlining the town's expenditures and plans for 2010, which is already underway. Or worse: perhaps they sat there in ignorance, unaware that the draft budget is for their eyes only. One wonders if councillors have set such a policy and understand how they are blocking citizens from important information.  
Not matter how you look at it, these leaders are falling short of their duty and are setting a poor example in their community. Within the purview of their duty is to adopt and maintain policies to ensure that the municipality is accountable to the public for its actions. Their duty is to ensure that their actions are transparent to the public.
Watching municipal councillors discuss, for example, line 231 and ask why it is so high only to hear a response couched in terms undecipherable to all is not transparency.
Expecting citizens to attend a meeting that is not publicized and at which no documents are available is not transparency.
But it is to be hoped that citizens can, indeed, see through such abdication of duty.
Citizens should be asking for Hawkesbury's policies as they relate to budget planning and other matters and if these policies are no more than a lock-down on information, they should be changed.
The province gave municipalities the power to introduce their own policies of accountability and transparency.
In Hawkesbury's case, one wonders if councillors even understand the concept.