North Now says secret meetings destroy transparent local government

9 September 2010: Aucklanders will not have to put up with hundreds of council agenda items being heard in secret if North Now candidates are elected to the Auckland Council.

North Now’s North Shore candidate, Christine Rankin, announced the policy today in response to recent press statements issued by outgoing North Shore mayor Andrew Williams.

"Mayor Williams failed to recognise two things when releasing the attendance records of his councillors, and criticising mine. The first was my severe illnesses last year (double pneumonia, pleurisy and a severe lung condition), which kept me at home for many months. My attendance record this year is similar to many of his councillors. The second was the number of confidential (secret) meetings his council has held over the last term,” Rankin says.

“In 2007 Andrew Williams campaigned on fewer secret meetings. He criticised the then mayor, George Wood, for his use of them. Yet over the past three years, including council committees, the North Shore City Council has heard nearly 300 agenda items in secret.

"The worst protagonists have been the A-Team leaders, councillors Grant Gillon and Tony Holman. Holman, as chairman of the Community Services & Parks Committee, had in excess of 85 items heard in secret. Grant Gillon's record is more disturbing. He is chairman of the Strategy & Finance Committee, which has an important role in budgets and council finances. Yet there is a large portion of that ratepayer-funded budget unaccountable to the very people the money is provided from, as he has had in excess of 100 items heard in secret.”

Rankin says that must end, and will end, if North Now candidates are elected to the Auckland Council.

"It is proper to attend meetings, and I realise there are very good reasons for holding some meetings in committee. But it is not right to hold secret council meetings simply to keep prying media out of the room, which is what Mayor Williams’ A-Team has been doing. That is not good enough. No better example could be found than that of the Albany Aquatic Centre.”

Rankin says that simply because council agenda items might be embarrassing to certain councillors is not a reason to hold secret meetings.

"The Auckland Council is going to have an annual budget in excess of $2 billion. Recent Statistics New Zealand figures show that the debt of local authorities throughout the country has swollen to $5.232 billion in June 2009. North Shore debt has ballooned from about $250 million in 2007 to a forecast of $700 million in 2019/2020,” she says.

"The new Auckland Council will take on that North Shore debt and there needs to be an honest debate with the public about how to reduce it, in open agenda, and not in secret.

"Voters are utterly disenfranchised with local government on the North Shore. It is little wonder when one considers their ability to hear the debate and the reasons for decision-making has slowly been stripped away from them by the mayor and his so-called A- Team. That must end.”

• North Now is an independent North Shore/North Harbour ticket standing candidates for the Auckland Council, local boards and the Waitemata District Health Board.

ENDS

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