I covered many council meetings in my young cadet days and looked forward to an exchange of views between councillors because it added interest to what was fairly dull stuff and often pointed the way to a good story.
Council chambers were, and are, not filled with Winston Churchills or Mark Twains. You could not hope to be entertained by scintillating speeches or debates, but the press was there to ensure readers had an idea of what was going on at council.
Yes there were in-camera sections of the agenda where the press was excluded, but they were infrequent.
I've heard from a number of folk who - when questioning councillors on secret meetings - are disappointed with stock answers seemingly straight from a manual.
I find that troubling.
To my mind, the most disappointing aspect of the new era of secrecy that shrouds Town Hall is that those voting for it are recently elected councillors.
Two older hands - Cr Rick Curach and Cr Catherine Stewart - are vocal in their opposition to so much work being done behind closed doors. They reckon the secret meetings could easily be held in the open and I fully agree with them.
Not so Crs Matt Cowley, Gail McIntosh, John Robson, Steve Morris, Bev Edlin, Bill Grainger and Kelvin Clout.
With the exception of Cr Grainger, these councillors were chosen to change the way the city council operated when the old guard was swept away in 2013.
I had discussions with them on the campaign trail and I distinctly remember most agreed with my view that we needed more transparency and openness in council dealings.
And yet 18 months on, we have less open debate than we had before.
Do they feel the need to hide things from us?
Or is it a strategy by faceless public servants to limit debate so they can go about doing what they want to do without interference from elected members and the public?
Possibly the new councillors think they know better than voters about how we want our city run?
I hope not, as that way several political careers will go down in the history books as one-term wonders.
People in this city want more scrutiny of council, not less.
After the electoral bloodbath of 2013, I suspect it will be easier for ignored or feeling-unappreciated voters to change those running the city more quickly and replace them with others they think may be more open.
The Dawn Service at the Mount this year was amazing.
I got there at 5am and it was already filling well.
By the time the commemoration began, the crowd had covered Mt Drury and I heard was stretched halfway across the beach to the ocean.
It certainly was the biggest crowd I have seen there and was a fitting tribute on the 100th anniversary of the landings at Gallipoli.
Every adult there felt the emotion of the ceremony and, as I predicted in last week's column, there were plenty of dew-affected eyes.
WHILE on the subject of Anzac Day, people should make the effort to get along to Classic Flyers and check out their terrific World War I exhibition From Tauranga to the Trenches.
A lot of effort has gone in to the large display, which covers many aspects of the War to end all Wars.
Of the 410 men from Tauranga believed to have fought in that bloody conflict, 110 did not make it home: 62 died in battle, 18 died of wounds, 29 died of illness or disease and one in a flying accident while testing an aircraft.
Poignant stories of some of the men are featured on wallboards and are displayed really well.
One display that should generate a lot of interest is the wall of images of those who left these shores. There will be a lot of local families who will be able to spot an ancestor, or two, among them.
The guys and gals at Classic Flyers deserve lots of praise for this effort, which is free and open until May 23.
-Richard@richardmoore.com
Richard Moore is an award-winning Western Bay journalist and photographer.
