New process to enhance transparency of meetings and workshops

Some changes will be made to Waipā District Council’s meeting and workshop practices to further increase openness and transparency with the community.

The changes come off the back of the Chief Ombudsman’s investigation into eight councils practices for meeting and workshops from August 2022. Waipā District Council was not one of those councils.

Chief Executive Garry Dyet said the council already adopted an ‘open by default’ approach to its workshops and the changes would enhance its current practices.

Meetings and workshops were only held in public excluded when there was just a justifiable cause for doing so, he said.

Changes will include:

• Publishing meeting agendas as soon as they are ready, rather than on a statutory deadline.
• Updating council templates to ensure grounds for any public excluded items are clear and easily understood.
• Formal quarterly meetings by key staff to review the release of any public excluded items.
• Publishing both open and public excluded workshop schedules on the website in advance including the reason for excluding the public.
• Publishing workshop materials and key outcomes on the website where open.
• Livestreaming more committee meetings so they can be viewed in real time.
• Publicly advertising meetings and workshops on the website so people are aware when and what is on.