Covid 19 Delta outbreak: Councils urged to maintain public transparency

A screenshot of a virtual Bay of Plenty Regional Council Public Transport Committee meeting held last week, and loaded online. Image / YouTube

Bay of Plenty councils are being encouraged to maintain public transparency amid Covid-19 lockdown alert levels but there is no one actually making sure they do.

Alert level 4 threw local democracy into a virtual environment with some councils holding public meetings online via Zoom or Team links.

Tauranga City Council livestreamed its meeting on Monday this week to ensure people could attend in real-time. Rotorua Lakes Council did likewise with its Operations and Monitoring Committee meeting on Thursday.

By comparison Bay of Plenty Regional Council recorded their Public Transport Committee meeting last week and loaded it on to YouTube later that day and Western Bay of Plenty District Council recorded its Performance and Monitoring Committee meeting on Tuesday but only the audio was made available the day after it was recorded.

Local Government New Zealand president Stuart Crosby said transparency was "critical" to democracy in New Zealand and livestreaming meetings was the best way to retain this during the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, he appreciated that it was "not as easy as it sounds" due to the need for platforms to be installed and the cost of doing so.

Local Government New Zealand president Stuart Crosby. Photo / NZME

"I think we have to acknowledge we are operating in a challenging environment to keep democracy going and local government services going."

Crosby, an elected member of the regional council, said in his personal opinion the council was well resourced and "we should have been live streaming earlier".

Livestreaming gave people an authentic view of a meeting as it played out. Recordings of meetings subsequently loaded online "will always have a perception of editing".

"With technology now comes more transparency," he said.

"This is a new norm we are operating under now. We will have to understand the rules that go with it."

Under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act, while an epidemic notice is in force the requirement to hold a meeting in public meant the meeting must, if reasonably practicable, be broadcast over the internet.

Western Bay of Plenty District Council group manager of people and customer service Jan Pedersen confirmed it had not been livestreaming but meetings were available online and the council "post meeting agendas, reports and minutes on the council's website".

"We'll be exploring how to best livestream our council meetings this financial year … we are currently investigating if our current technology has the capability to do this."

Pedersen said the council aimed to streamline its technical process to ensure audio recordings were loaded to its website by the end of the following day but this had been delayed by technical issues.

A Tauranga City Council spokeswoman said all meetings were livestreamed and while it had not had any requests from people wanting to present in the public forum so far this lockdown, traditionally people could by being given access to join the remote meeting.

At Rotorua Lakes Council, council district leadership and democracy deputy chief executive Oonagh Hopkins said it has been livestreaming meetings since 2015 via YouTube. These videos were also available after the meeting was held.

Hopkins confirmed the council edited a recording of a meeting held in March last year when "technical problems with the livestream required the use of portions of a back-up recording and a confidential matter inadvertently discussed by elected members was edited out".

No public matters or discussions relating to public matters were removed, she said.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council chief executive Fiona McTavish said it was planning to begin livestreaming from next week.

Asked why it wasn't already doing so, she said the council had been waiting on suppliers to provide updated software.

For now, the council has been loading recorded videos of the meeting to its YouTube channel after the meeting has been held.

Under levels 3 and 4, council meetings need to be held virtually. Under level 2, elected members can meet in person provided they are socially distanced and comfortable to do so.

Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta. Photo / NZME

Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta said she was not aware of any councils not adhering to their obligations during lockdown but confirmed there was no external body monitoring whether such councils were complying with their requirements.

"I encourage all councils to endeavour to make public meetings accessible for people to listen to in real-time or as soon as possible afterwards ... if a council is unable to livestream their meeting then they must make a written summary of the business of the meeting available on their website. I expect councils to comply with this requirement."

Residents should complain directly to the council if they believed their requirements were not being met. Failing this, they could complain to the Ombudsman's office, she said.