Hawkes Bay Today
  • Hawke's Bay Today home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Havelock North
  • Central Hawke's Bay
  • Tararua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Hawkes Bay Today

Doors open unless good reason not to - CHB mayor

Hawkes Bay Today
10 Dec, 2016 08:17 PM2 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

OPEN DOOR: CHB mayor Alex Walker says that when public exclusion is not legally binding, she aims to have council business in the open unless there's good reason not to.

OPEN DOOR: CHB mayor Alex Walker says that when public exclusion is not legally binding, she aims to have council business in the open unless there's good reason not to.

CHB mayor Alex Walker says she's working on trying to make as much council business as possible open to the public, but there are specific constraints on what business can be conducted in a public forum.

The Central Hawke's Bay District Council does not have the number of committees and sub-committees of the other bigger councils in the region, and its public excluded meetings are incorporated into the same day as the council meetings.

Of its ordinary full council meetings, 25 were held between October 2013 and October 2016 and of those 16 contained public excluded items - that's 64 per cent.

Ms Walker, who is embarking on her first term in office, said public exclusion was about the law regarding people's safety and commercial confidentiality.

This encompassed events directly involving a staff member, a person's safety, or negotiating contracts with commercial property owners and leaseholders.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"My approach is to have the doors open as a default and to look carefully at the reasons for excluding the public, and whether it is really necessary."

In a legal and technical sense meetings were where decisions were made, unlike workshops, which tended not to be open to the public, she said.

There can be a perception that workshops are where the decisions are made before being simply rubber-stamped at open council meetings, but she said they serve a cause.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"Workshops are for providing information and discussion so people understand the issues."

Like with council meetings, she said she was working towards making workshops more open as well, only having them closed if there was good reason.

A call for more transparency around council business was a defining feature of this year's local body elections in CHB, but it was not only about public access to meetings, Ms Walker said.

"It's also about having good communication from the top to the bottom of the organisation at relevant times.

"That's what gives the public a good understanding of the business and what's happening in the community and why decisions are made."

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Hawkes Bay Today
|Updated

Motorist dies after four crashes in 40 minutes in Hawke's Bay

Hawkes Bay Today

'We have you surrounded': Police stood down after Hawke's Bay stand-off, search continues

Premium
Hawkes Bay Today

Black Ferns: Tui pair on the big bird for matches in South Africa


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Motorist dies after four crashes in 40 minutes in Hawke's Bay
Hawkes Bay Today
|Updated

Motorist dies after four crashes in 40 minutes in Hawke's Bay

Some roads remained blocked.

17 Jul 06:02 AM
'We have you surrounded': Police stood down after Hawke's Bay stand-off, search continues
Hawkes Bay Today

'We have you surrounded': Police stood down after Hawke's Bay stand-off, search continues

17 Jul 04:06 AM
Premium
Premium
Black Ferns: Tui pair on the big bird for matches in South Africa
Hawkes Bay Today

Black Ferns: Tui pair on the big bird for matches in South Africa

17 Jul 04:00 AM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Hawke's Bay Today e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Hawke's Bay Today
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP