Secret council workshops investigated by chief ombudsman

Friday, 5 August 2022

Palmerston North City Council will be probed about its use of workshops instead of formal meetings.

The misuse of workshops to keep the public in the dark about council issues will be investigated by Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier, with Palmerston North one of eight councils under the microscope.

Boshier has launched his study because he was concerned councils were using workshops and other informal meetings to undermine local democracy.

The Palmerston North City Council came to his attention after Stuff complained about the withholding of information about the Nature Calls wastewater project presented at a workshop in 2020.

The material was eventually released 10 months later.

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* City council criticised for keeping wastewater workshops secret

In that case, Boshier found the council was not entitled to withhold the information, and instructed then chief executive Heather Shotter to apologise, which she did.

Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier is studying how councils use workshops.

He said it was particularly worrying that the council was trying to preserve its practice of holding workshops as a way to avoid public scrutiny.

The city council had since overhauled its policies about workshops.

It now advertises their time, date and topics on its website, and media and public can attend unless provisions under the Local Government Information and Meetings Act can be applied to keep the forum confidential.

Stuff attended the first workshop under the new regime about master planning for the city’s future civic and cultural precinct in May 2022.

An upcoming workshop about the council’s role and future options for the historic but decaying High Flyers building in The Square is being held with the public excluded to enable the council to carry out commercial activities and negotiations with a private building owner.

Boshier said there was nothing to prevent councils holding workshops.

But he said they could not dodge their legal responsibilities to give notice of meetings, and provide an agenda and supporting papers in advance, by calling a meeting a workshop.

He said there should also be quality records of what happened in workshops.

“The public may become suspicious if councils repeatedly use closed workshops or informal meetings to discuss issues.”

The other thing councils were not allowed to do was to exclude the public so they could hold “free and frank” discussions behind closed doors.

“Yet I fear this may be happening,” he said.

The councils that will be investigated are Palmerston North City Council, and near neighbour Rangitīkei District Council, along with Rotorua Lakes, Taranaki Regional Council, Taupō, Waimakariri, Timaru and Clutha district councils.

Boshier said he had chosen them for a variety of reasons, to have a mix of sizes, urban and rural, and to include those that were getting it right which could share good practice with other councils.

The investigation would seek input from the councils and their staff, and there would be a public survey for people to report their experiences, open until August 26.

Boshier said while his investigation would focus on the current terms of councils, from October 2019, it was not about the conduct of individual elected representatives, and the process was distanced from the lead up to local body elections in October.

He expected to publish his findings in mid-2023.