Where is the info?
Tomorrow will mark four weeks since Stuff requested copies of all documents and reports relating to the Timaru District Holdings Ltd proposal to sell down its shares in lines company Alpine Energy.
The request, which asked for all information submitted for or presented to either the Timaru District Council or TDHL, was made under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act. Under the act, a response must be provided within 20 working days.
The guiding principle of the law is that information should be made available unless there is a good reason for withholding it.
Stuff still does not have all of that information.
In February, chief ombudsman Peter Boshier warned of a tighter focus on councils’ obligations under the act. He said local democracy was being undermined by the failure of some councils to meet their freedom obligations.
With just four days until submissions close on the proposal, any new information will have to be digested in haste by anyone who wishes to submit.
If the council chooses, or requires, to use the full 20 days allowed under the act, we may only get the information on December 10. The same day submissions close.
On November 23, two weeks after the LGOIMA request, Stuff asked the council why no information had been forthcoming. Later that day, it filled part of the request releasing the minutes from an extraordinary council meeting on November 6, a report which was tabled at a meeting on October 2 - in which the TDHL board recommended it sell its shareholding, and a public consultation document. At the time, Stuff was told other information would take longer to prepare and would be made available as soon as possible. That was 12 days ago.
Yesterday, a council staffer said the information should be available today. We have been told that before. of information