London councillors on cellphones during public meetings. Is it a bad thing?

It was a bit of a "gotcha" moment captured on video toward the end of a seven-hour public participation meeting at London City Hall. 

With most of the 75 speakers on hand to question a $672-budget allocation to the London Police Service, Londoner Kade Pitcher shot a video from the public gallery showing three members of council on their cellphones during the Feb. 27 meeting. 

The video showed councillors Hadleigh McAllister, Peter Cuddy and Sam Trosow on their devices as a speaker questioned the crime stats used to justify the historic boost to the police budget. 

"Me and my friends noticed that these people were not paying attention," said Pitcher, who uses the pronouns they and them. "They were not listening to us, they were just on their phones. That was what made me want to start recording."

Pitcher is part of a collective of Londoners who feel most councillors had made up their mind about the police funding before the meeting. The meeting was held to give Londoners an opportunity to share their views on how the city will spend their tax dollars for the next four years.

"There's a time and place when you should not be on your phone because it's frankly disrespectful," they said. 

However, city councillors who spoke to CBC News said the issue is more nuanced and that the video is not proof they were shirking their responsiblity to listen. 

CBC News reached out to every member of council and spoke to eight in total about the video. 

All who responded said are are often good reasons they're on their phones in council chambers, which is not against any rules governing council procedure. 

Coun. Elizabeth Peloza admits she's occasionally on her phone but uses it mostly for reasons related to running the meeting which is part of her role as budget chair.

These include everything from answering text messages from people on the speakers list wondering when their slot is coming up, to using the phone's timer function to ensure speakers don't exceed the five-minute limit. 

"As chair I have a lot going on, I'm coordinating with security, IT, the city clerk, other councillors," she said. 

Peloza also said she was staying in touch with home over the course of a meeting that started at 4 p.m. and didn't wrap up until almost 11 p.m.

"We're still balancing child care, elder care and other family needs," said Peloza. "My kids were asking 'When's dinner?'"