Hutt City mayoral hopeful calls council 'a disgrace' after battle to get access to public documents

Saturday, 25 May 2019

Senior reporter Andrea Vance demonstrates how to seek information using the Official Information Act.

A Hutt City mayoral hopeful is seeking an urgent meeting with the Ombudsman after difficulties in getting public information from council officers.

Campbell Barry, a current councillor, said a new policy which allows the Hutt City Council to charge $100 after the first hour spent searching for official information was undemocratic.

'The approach being taken by council is a disgrace,' he said.

'It flies in the face of open government. Council has deliberately decided to put unnecessary barriers in place to make public records less accessible.'

**READ MORE:

Campbell Barry wants an urgent meeting with the Ombudsman to discuss access to official information in Hutt City.

* The OIA is broken

* Time to find a cure for the OIA

* OIA users face being unmasked**

However, council acting chief executive Matt Reid strenuously denied any change in the rules and said they were acting within the Ombudsman's guideliness in charging for information that is complex.

He said the council was overwhelmed with requests and has had to employ someone to help out.

Campbell Barry was asked to pay $400 for a public interest request he'd made about the mayoral diary.

'That comes at a cost to ratepayers and it is appropriate we recover some of that,' Reid said.

Currently there were 26 active requests, many of which are complex and time consuming to deal with.

The council had recently centralised its systems and in cases, where there was no public interest, a charge would now apply, Reid said.

Hutt Valley Council acting chief executive Matt Reid says they are acting within the Ombudsman's guideliness in charging for information that is complex (FILE).

However, council would continue not to charge where there are matters of public interest, he said.

But Barry rejected that, saying he was asked to pay $400 for a public interest request he'd made about the mayoral diary, and who the mayor met with, to discuss the earthquake prone Naenae Pool.

State Services Minister Chris Hipkins talks to Stuff for Redacted, our series on the Official Information Act. (First published in April 2019).

Barry said getting information on the closure of a public pool that will cost $40 million to rebuild was clearly of public interest.

'If this is a resourcing issue, as council has indicated, then that must be addressed immediately. This is a basic function of public entities.

'This will have a severe impact on the availability of information. Most people cannot afford hundreds, or potentially thousands of dollars in fees to access information which they are rightfully entitled to.

'I will be seeking an urgent meeting with the Ombudsman to advise them of these practices. Ratepayers deserve transparency and accountability at council, and can not afford this approach to continue.'

Thomas Beagle, who chairs the Council for Civil Liberties, thought Hutt City would struggle to defend its position.

The Official Information Act is underpinned by the premise that people have a right to see official information.

It is not up to the council to make a judgement on why people want that information, Beagle said.

Someone standing for office had the right to see information that could help them get elected and he could he see no justification in withholding information about the mayor's diary.

Beagle said Civil Liberties believed all councils should be far more proactive in releasing information, including who a mayor meets.

'We are strongly in favour of all information being made public.'