A report outlining the purchase of a property by Tauranga's Elms Foundation was taken in confidential at a council meeting yesterday, despite a plea from city councillor Rick Curach to discuss it in the open.
The Tauranga City Council has paid $2 million over the past seven years to help protect the historic Elms Mission House from the threat of development springing up on its doorstep.
Cr Curach argued the report had significant repercussions for the wider community and asked why it should all be taken in confidential. The council should try to separate the parts of the report which measured up to the confidentiality provisions of the Local Government Act, he said.
The council should not be bound by confidentiality requests from "external parties" when the requests were not valid reasons under the act.
Mayor Stuart Crosby indicated he was at a function on Sunday where it was announced the foundation had bought the property.
The Bay of Plenty Times understands the property in question is the wooden cottage on the corner of Mission St and Chapel St. It is the only property left to be purchased for the Elms from the entire block of land between the former Capamagian property at 7 Mission St and Chapel St, next to The Domain playing fields.
Council deputy chief executive Christine Jones said she was not sure if the terms and conditions of the purchase were in the open.
Cr Murray Guy complained that nobody got to understand how the council baked the cake, only that they got a cake. The council adjourned making a decision on the confidentiality until later in the meeting when in-committee items came up for debate. This was to give chief executive Ken Paterson time to see whether the report could be brought into the open.
Mr Paterson subsequently recommended that it stay in confidential. He said he had spoken with some of the people named in the report and it was their desire that it stay in confidential at this stage.
Previous reports in the Bay of Plenty Times show that the Elms Foundation has been acquiring properties that once formed part of the original Mission House gardens and were subdivided off many years ago. The first to be returned were two properties that dominate the Elms' northern Marsh St frontage, transferred nearly five years ago after being bought for $1.6 million in 2005 by the council and TECT. They are a single-storey cedar-clad home and a block of four flats.
In 2006, the council met the whole of the $825,000 purchase price for the leg-in property at 11 Mission St on the eastern boundary of the Elms. In May, 2010, the council contributed $400,000 towards the $1.29 million purchase of the Capamagian property fronting the leg-in property at 7 Mission St.
Other confidential items debated yesterday included "the future use of the facility occupied by Daniels in the Park" next to the Queen Elizabeth Stadium in Memorial Park.