City councillors have had their fingers rapped for holding a behind-closed-door meeting to dole out $100,000 to one of their employees.

At Wednesday's council meeting, meetings investigator Doug Wallace told council it was in the public interest to be as transparent as possible when dealing with taxpayers' dollars. And Wallace said council did have options, including dealing with the policy of topping up pensions, without identifying employees.

While this is never mentioned in the report, the in-camera meeting dealt with the pension of the city's auditor general Alain Lalonde, who asked for council to top up his pension plan by about $100,000 after he transferred his federal pension to the city.

Nice work if you can get it!

Osgoode Coun. Doug Thompson admitted after the meeting that council should have been more thoughtful before going in-camera to discuss the matter.

"In hindsight, yes, I think there were options we didn't think of," Thompson said.

Capital Coun. Clive Doucet said he hates in-camera meetings, and has made a habit on not staying for them.

Doucet did win a victory of sorts when he convinced council to revisit any plans for Sylvia Holden Park -- and its relationship with Lansdowne Park.

WAIT FOR PROPOSALS

Currently, the park is included in the design plans for Lansdowne Park.

While Doucet argued passionately to have it taken out, a compromise was reached to have the issue dealt with at the next council meeting on May 24, after the five design committees unveil their plans for both Lansdowne and Sylvia Holden Park.

What was expected to be a relatively short, non-eventful council meeting managed to drag through for most of the day.

Without debate, council also approved an innovative move to support opening city data not protected by privacy laws to the public to encourage innovative new uses.

Close to two dozen data sets -- including everything from the last-minute availability of arena ice time to information on basketball courts and sports fields -- are now available at ottawa.ca/opendata. New information is expected to be added soon.

People can use this data for many things, including mobile device applications.

Council also approved an "Open App" development contest to run this fall.

Much of the morning was spent debating Hydro Ottawa's annual report. This year, the profit-oriented business gave Ottawa a $17-million divided.

"Aren't hydro profits just a tax by another name?" Steve Blais, a candidate in Cumberland ward, astutely asked.