A Gisborne district councillor is calling for increased transparency around workshops following a stern word from the Ombudsman to some councils around the country.
In October, chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier released findings on his investigation into eight councils where he found workshops were effectively being closed by default.
At Gisborne District Council — which was not included in the investigation — workshops were technically “open” but not advertised, a practice Boshier was critical of.
The council has since said it will consider advertising workshops, with Mayor Rehette Stoltz reassuring no decisions were made behind closed doors.
On Thursday, Councillor Tony Robinson said he wanted the council to make sure its discussions were taking place in full view of the public.
“I just want to again note in this forum that I would prefer as many matters that are addressed in workshops are addressed in a forum that is more publicly reported, and is open for attendance from the public and scrutiny by the public,” Robinson said.
“Yes we might ask stupid questions or look like d…s sometimes in the workshops, but that’s a small price to pay for the transparency of democracy.
“I would encourage as many matters as possible to please be done through a forum other than a workshop.”
Council democracy support services manager Heather Kohn said she attended a webinar with a law firm the previous day on the topic of workshops.
In response to Robinson’s concerns, Kohn said the consensus was that the Ombudsman never made a recommendation using his Act, and that the council had a “pretty good process of workshops and becoming public in decision-making forums”.
She added that a paper would be brought before the council to review workshops, and that the public had been invited to workshops in the past if they had a vested interest.
Following the Ombudsman’s report, Local Democracy Reporting made a request for workshop minutes from the council for the 18 unadvertised workshops it had held in the current term since October 2022.
The council provided minutes for just one workshop.
Minutes were refused for four workshops for a variety of reasons including commercial sensitivity while minutes had not been taken for another four workshops facilitated by PwC.
For the nine remaining workshops, minutes and information were either publicly available, or would become so as part of future public consultations.
Kohn referenced the LGOIMA request at Thursday’s meeting.
“We only needed to release one workshop because everything else that was discussed at those workshops was now in the public forum by way of reports,” she said.
A spokesperson for the Office of the Ombudsman said Boshier’s thematic report which accompanied his investigation into eight councils set out expectations for all councils to open workshops by default. Workshops could still be closed, but only on a case-by-case basis.
“This report did not contain formal recommendations under the Ombudsmen Act, as they are only made after an Ombudsman forms an opinion about the conduct of a particular agency after an investigation,” the spokesperson said.
“However, councils should be aware the Chief Ombudsman will be monitoring the situation and he will be guided by his expectations should a complaint arise about any council’s actions.”