Public Service Watch: Council keeping public in the dark

Saturday, 14 October 2023

The purchase of the land under Reading Cinemas was described on the agenda as a “City Activation project”. (File photo)

In the daily Public Service Watch column, The Post shines a light on how public money is spent, and the people and organisations making those decisions.

For the second time in its one-year term, the Wellington City Council has tried to keep a deal totally under wraps.

The first principle of local government — literally, first on the list of principles in the Local Government Act — is that councils should act openly, transparently, and with democratic accountability.

It doesn’t smack of transparency if residents of Wellington don’t know anything about deals unless councillors choose to leak information or the deals are already signed.

The most recent example was last week’s decision to move ahead with due diligence on the purchase of land under the Reading Cinemas complex on Courtenay Place. Before that was the purchase of 474 car parks in a building on Tory St in December 2022.

Even the discussion topics were kept private. All that was made public were the vague titles “City Activation project” (purchase of land under Reading Cinemas) and “City Car Parking Capacity and Revenue” (buying hundreds of car parks).

Council staff recommended the information be kept secret, and a majority of councillors voted it through.

The reason for keeping the Reading Cinemas deal secret was listed as commercial sensitivity and ongoing negotiations.

Both can be valid — the council wouldn’t normally have to disclose its negotiating strategies, or what price it might be willing to pay, because it could hamper its chances of getting a good price.

Outside of the truly sensitive pieces of information, there was a lot of information known to both parties which could have been disclosed.

Council could have released a redacted paper outlining the fact that there was a Reading Cinemas deal, why the council was considering it, and what the risks might be.

In the absence of that, the media and the public are left to rely on whatever information councillors choose to leak.