Local board workshops in Franklin, Manurewa and Papakura will be open to the public from October.
Some of the city’s 21 boards already hold open workshops and now the three most southern boards, which only opened their business meetings to the public, will join them through a combination of opening workshops, posting recordings and allowing online attendance.
Manurewa Local Board chair Matt Winiata says the decision has been taken in response to the Ombudsman’s Open for Business report.
“Board workshops are informal, non-decision-making meetings where members discuss options before they go to the monthly meeting for final decisions,” he explains.
“The approach has been that they are closed, but a board can decide to make them open. We are just joining other boards across Auckland that already allow that.
“Watching workshops might give context to our decisions at business meetings, and provide a view of what’s happening around work programmes.”
Last October, the Ombudsman released a report that found no evidence of decision-making at workshops, but noted practices that could undermine transparency, recommending they be open by default, with any closures justified on a case-by-case basis.
Papakura Local Board chair Brent Catchpole says members and staff were asked to provide their views, reporting that risks included breaching confidentiality, discouraging frank discussion, causing confusion around decision-making, and disrupting community engagement.
“But we also noted that in boards with open workshops, public attendance was low, and that there were also benefits, including supporting transparency and holding members accountable, increasing public awareness, and enabling community connection,” he adds.
“Our monthly meetings are sometimes quite well-attended, and we encourage people to come and see how decisions are made. Opening workshops just allows people to see what goes on there too.”
Franklin Local Board chair Angela Fulljames says to meet the Ombudsman’s expectations, it was recommended that workshops default to being open, including in-person attendance, live-streaming or recording.
“We have no problem with the public being able to see what happens in workshops.
“Sometimes there is good debate, sometimes staff can be questioned closely about their advice - other times it barely raises a ripple, but it can only be healthy for people to be able to see there is nothing to hide.”
Workshops for Auckland Council’s Governing Body – the mayor and councillors – are also being made open to the public by recording and uploading video to council’s website.
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