Council meetings need to be open to all

Democracy, quite literally, means the people’s power. Some democratic institutions seem to sometimes forget that they only exist at the will of the people.

Democracy is fickle — we put them in power and we can take them out.

It’s fitting now that the Ombudsman has launched an investigation into concerns councils may be using workshops to discuss issues and even “make decisions behind closed doors”.

The investigation will include eight councils, including Rotorua Lakes Council.

Announcing the investigation, Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier said “meetings should be open to the public unless there is good reason under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act”.

“Operating workshops behind closed doors, in my view, is not how a functioning local democracy should operate.”

An example of this type of secrecy was highlighted this year when Local Democracy Reporting revealed the council was discussing a proposal to sell 10 Rotorua reserve sites for housing. It was later revealed the Government began discussions with the council on this early last year.

While the council maintained at the time that “no decisions have been made”, in my view that is not the point.

In my opinion, the council needed to involve the public sooner in an idea, that if it goes ahead, will be irrevocable.

Do these democratic organisations truly expect us to hand over our rates so they can say: “trust us, it’s for your own good” and close the door in our faces?

Local Democracy Reporting revealed last year that all 37 of Rotorua Lakes Council’s workshops between 2018 and

2020 were held behind closed doors.

How can the public be reliably informed when they don’t know how and why some of their representatives have formed or debated their opinions?

Those discussions must be held in public. Those representatives are paid from the public purse.

Rotorua council made clear last year it had made a concerted effort to increase the amount of information and communication that goes out to the community.

But it needs to hold all meetings in the open so the public and media can attend — unless a discussion around commercial or personal sensitivity is required.

I believe some councils in New Zealand need to act more transparently and bring their ratepayers in from the dark.