Councillor slams council secrecy

NO ENTRY: Too much council business is being conducted in secret, says a Masterton councillor. PHOTO/LYNDA FERINGA

A veil of secrecy has been thrown over Masterton District Council debates and it is time for more business to be transacted in the public eye, is the claim of Councillor Brent Goodwin.

At a council committee meeting this week, Mr Goodwin spoke up over what he sees as unnecessary secrecy with debate on major issues being confined to behind closed doors.

His remarks were prompted by the press and public being excluded from discussions surrounding funding for Toi Wairarapa, an organisation set up in 2007 dealing with art, culture and heritage issues in the district and to which the three district councils contribute money.

Mr Goodwin said during his time on council - which extends back to the mayoralty of Bob Francis and also a term under former mayor Garry Daniell - he had never known public debate to be closed down to the extent it now is.

"Apart from the Archer Street gates issue and the Pou we have not had public debate, I have never known of so much business being done in committee," he said.

Mr Goodwin said the whole idea of local government was to allow public "debate and argument."

"But there are just more and more issues being taken with the public excluded."

Speaking outside the meeting, Mr Goodwin said he had decided not to push the Toi Wairarapa issue once he found that the discussion could impact on a staff member.

"That's the reason I backed away but nevertheless the real issue remains.

"We have a hell of a lot of discussions behind closed doors.

"You only have to go back a few years to compare what was happening then to find out far more issues were debated publicly, and that's the way it should be."

Mr Goodwin said open debate was the cornerstone of democracy but that even issues regarding core business, such as rating, were now often done in private and at closed workshops.

The upshot, he said, was that voters could not be expected to make "an intelligent assessment" of the effectiveness of council, or individual councillors, if they were kept in the dark over what was going on.

Mr Goodwin said when the prospect of live streaming council meetings had been raised he supported it in an effort to show ratepayers how business was done.

"But that never got a look in.

"Perhaps some councillors were afraid they would be looked on as a laughing stock, if people got to know what they had to say," he said.