Not so secret after all.

July 23rd, 2010

I sometimes worry how perception and generalisations colour our thinking. The Chronicle front page headline today screams ‘Secret Council’. The only justification that I then read about why Council is so secret is the number of items dealt with in the closed or confidential sessions of our Council meetings versus the number of issues dealt with in the public or open section of our meetings. No analysis has been done to examine the content of the agenda items or to explain why these items are dealt with confidentially.

Council is required by Law, Law not of Council’s making but rather Law made by the Queensland State Government, to deal with certain matters confidentially. If we don’t abide by the Law our Council could face serious consequences. While I don’t always agree with all the Laws that I have to abide by, I respect the fact that I should abide by them and I believe the FCRC does a good job of abiding by the Law.

Sometimes I, or a fellow Councillor, has questioned why a particular report is listed within the confidential section of the agenda. On making enquiries we either agree that the item should remain there or we ask that it be moved into the open and public section of Council. This has happened and will continue to happen. Also it is to be remebered that any decisions made as a result of a confidential report are made in the public and open part of the meetings and these decisions are on the public record including the Councillors voting.

I’m saddened by the general inference that our Council is secretive and would prefer that any focus on the openness of Council is done by examining the actual content of reports and items discussed not just on the number of reports. Human nature is such that we prefer to know everything about everything all of the time and we don’t appreciate secrecy. I understand that it is unpleasant to know someone is dealing with an issue behind closed doors as our inquisitive nature automatically leads us to wanting to know who said what and what was said. Even if the private meeting was as boring as the proverbial we would still feel a need to know about it simply because we aren’t included.

Councillors also have a very important responsibility to keep confidential matters confidential. It is a breach of the Local Government Act to talk about confidential discussions and with the new Local Government Act now in force, there is the possibility of an individual Councillor being stood down rather than an entire Council. I expect that one of the reasons that a Councillor could be required to leave office would be for breaching the Local Governmant Act.

I have copied the section from the Local Government (Operations) Regulation 2010 which outlines the issues frequently dealt with by Council confidentially-

71 Meetings in public unless otherwise resolved

A meeting is open to the public unless the local government or

committee has resolved that the meeting is to be closed under

section 72.

72 Closed meetings

(1) A local government or committee may resolve that a meeting

be closed to the public if its councillors or members consider

it necessary to close the meeting to discuss—

(a) the appointment, dismissal or discipline of employees;

or

(b) industrial matters affecting employees; or(c) the local government’s budget; or

(d) rating concessions; or

(e) contracts proposed to be made by it; or

(f) starting or defending legal proceedings involving it; or

(g) any action to be taken by the local government under the

Planning Act, including deciding applications made to it

under that Act; or

(h) other business for which a public discussion would be

likely to prejudice the interests of the local government

or someone else, or enable a person to gain a financial

advantage.

(2) However, a local government or committee can not resolve

that a meeting be closed to the public if any person is to take

part in the meeting by teleconferencing.

(3) A resolution that a meeting be closed must state the nature of

the matters to be considered while the meeting is closed.

(4) A local government or committee must not make a resolution

(other than a procedural resolution) in a closed meeting.

So these are the types of issues that we deal with privately. If there is anything listed on the Council agenda for discussion privately please do ask for clarification if you believe the item should not be dealt with confidentially and I will endeavour to clarify the reasons.

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