Tauranga council briefings to remain private

Mayor Stuart Crosby and several council members stand by the decision to hold meetings behind closed doors.

Tauranga City Council has toughened its position on the issue of holding briefings behind closed doors.

The council yesterday opted to hold the line on confidential briefings after the controversial disclosure that 86 had been held since the election 18 months ago - 24 fewer than the number of open meetings.

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A press release issued after the public-excluded lunchtime discussion said the practice of briefings and workshops was standard among most councils.

Mayor Stuart Crosby was asked what happened to the decision made by the council at a retreat last November that decisions on opening up briefings would be made on a case-by-case basis.

No briefings had been taken in the open since the retreat and Mr Crosby said it would be true to say councillors had reverted back to the position in which they would hold briefings on their own.

A critic of the universal closure of briefings to the public, Rick Curach, also lost his fall-back proposal that would have forced the council to publish a list of upcoming briefings, with a brief description of the topics.

Councillors Curach and Catherine Stewart opposed continuing with the status quo on briefings.

They were two of the three survivors of the former council which treated most of its briefings as open workshops.

Mr Crosby said often they did not know the content of the briefings until they arrived, it was a memo with no details.

Cr Curach was unable to discuss what was talked about at the lunchtime meeting because of the rule that what was discussed in the room did not go outside the room.

However, he did not think the decision made at the retreat had been countermanded by yesterday's meeting.

"We thought it would be a way forward to hold some briefings in the open, but that has not happened."

Cr Curach said briefings that dealt with political issues and where earlier input from the community was desirable should be in the open. Briefings that dealt with internal operational matters would be appropriate to be kept closed.

Mr Crosby defended the confidential representation briefing, saying the discussion would have lasted two minutes at the most.

There was unanimous support to stick with the four at-large seats and six ward seats - the proposal now goes out for public feedback.