With local government elections later this year, Whangarei District Council representatives are sorting out team tactics and seeing who is playing ball.
Three councillors - Brian McLachlan, Aaron Edwards and Crichton Christie - have made a bold opening move to get voters on their side by appealing to Mayor Morris Cutforth to let the public participate in a council workshop tomorrow.
In an open letter the mayor received early yesterday, the trio said confidential topics to be covered at the workshop included financial matters not included in the district's Long Term Plan.
If matters to be discussed at the workshop were approved, other projects already promised would miss out, the letter said. "We are calling on you to have this workshop in an open session so as to fulfil your promise, which we support, to have open and transparent council where nothing is hidden or covered up."
The trio didn't give the game away by revealing what will be on the agenda when the council goes into a huddle at the workshop behind closed doors tomorrow. And neither did Mr Cutforth when the Northern Advocate asked whether the letter had persuaded him to blow the whistle on council secrecy.