Subscribe to RSSBanks: How I Will Be Accountable
Mayor John Banks today outlined his plan of how he and his new supercouncil would be accountable and transparent to Auckland.
He claims the policies would make the Auckland Council “one of the most open and accountable councils in the world.”
It includes webcasting which he says would help “provincial parts of Auckland region stay in touch with their council, even if they can’t drive to the actual meeting and strengthen the local government connection with “Generation X”, who like following news or even Parliament through the internet. “
His plan is to:
- Introduce a Mayor and Chairs interests register (as with Parliament’s rules). Any councillor’s acceptance of a chairmanship would be conditional on their submitting to this register. All other councillors would be asked to voluntarily submit to the register as well.
- Require all elected representative expense claims published online on a quarterly basis, such as claims for meals, drink, entertainment, overseas travel, fuel claims and hireage.
- Introduce Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act (LGOIMA) Act requests online (as is already done at Auckland City). All LGOIMA results will be published online, around seven days after they have been responded to.
- Build an online community for Auckland Council’s local boards, to assist people in finding out about local issues, events, public works and consents.
- Investigate the webcasting of full council meetings. Webcasting of meetings would enable the public to watch meetings live and stay in touch with council decision-making. This includes the public reviews of CCOs and Council committee meetings.
- Build strong working relationships with CCO Chairs and Boards, not just from the Town Hall to the CCOs, but with the Mayor taking a central role in ensuring the CCOs work together.
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4 Comments
This is all minor process stuff. John Banks also said: “If I wear my policy on my sleeve, I won’t get elected.” - http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/national/2925552/When-Auckland-thinks-big-the-rest-think-hard/
Who knows what he really wants to do?
Does he commit to public meetings and published minutes for the CCO’s? THAT is where the core accountability issue sits, not whether I can watch the occasional Council meeting on YouTube.
Oh, and even videos of all meetings would not replace transcripts / minutes. Videos of meetings that you haven’t even attended are not exactly the most interesting stuff, nor will they be okay for a researcher, journalist or interested citizen who simply wants to get to the bottom of what actually has been decided at a particular meeting. You need written materials for that.
He will never have my vote.
He lost my vote after Dom Road.