Council’s secret treasure taking time

Palmerston North city councillors want decisions they made in private to be made public without delay in cases where there is no longer any reason for keeping them secret.

The city council was yesterday presented with a list of 61 items it has discussed behind closed doors in addition to the 32 already flagged.

It now has a complete list of all decisions made at meetings, with the press and public excluded, in the current term of the council.

Mayor Grant Smith and councillors asked for the list in the wake of revelations about the $391,000 grant made to Toyota New Zealand in 2017, which only became public knowledge after an official information request.

Council strategy and planning general manager Sheryl Bryant said it could take another three months to review all of the reports to see what, if any, information should still be withheld.

Both Smith and Cr Karen Naylor, who was the principal critic of the grant and the secrecy surrounding it, were on the same page when asking for information to be released during the review rather than held until the full project was completed.

Smith said many of the items, such as decisions made about appointments, contracts and grants, could be ticked off the list.

‘‘There is a lot of low-hanging fruit that could be released. We could probably end up with just one page, and that’s where we want to be.’’

The list also included some double-ups, where recommendations made by committees were further debated by the full council.

Many items are already described as being ‘‘released’’, but Cr Brent Barrett said not all of those were available on the council’s website or any other public place. ‘‘Released really just means it’s available on request.’’

Bryant said some of the reports that remained private would take some time for officers to review to consider how much information is made public.