Councillor Challenges West Coast Council Over Secrecy

Scoop

5 days ago

A West Coast regional councillor is challenging the council's refusal to reveal the credentials of people who work for it.
Brett Cummings, who chairs the council's Resource Management Committee, asked the council in March for details of the professional qualifications of Commissioners and a planner engaged by the council to work on the region's new district plan - Te Tai o Poutini Plan (TTPP).
The Greymouth goldminer represents his council on the TTPP working group and has protested regularly over its mounting costs and rules he considers too restrictive.
'It's supposed to be an enabling plan, customised for the Coast but the planners have taken over and I wanted to know to know how qualified they are and in what fields'.
Cr Cummings made his request under the provisions of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act (LGOIMA).
But the council's quarterly summary of LGOIMA requests showed it was rejected on privacy grounds.
Under the Act, councils can withhold information to protect the privacy of 'natural persons'', including the dead.
Cr Cummings says that makes no sense in this case.
'These are professional people and we are paying them and the council should be open about their backgrounds and their qualifications.'
The councillor has since found the information he wanted both online and in the council's public documents.
Principal planner Lois Easton formally recorded her credentials with the TTPP committee at the beginning of the plan project.
Her LinkedIn profile describes her as an environmental scientist with 25 years' experience advising government and not for profit organisations.
And a quick Google search reveals her bio as a member of the Hawke's Bay Conservation Board, with an MSc degree in environmental planning and botany.
The credentials of the five TTPP commissioners are also readily available online.
Cr Cummings says council staff appear confused about the meaning of privacy, as it applies under LGOIMA.
'If the information is publicly available and our council staff are citing privacy – you have to wonder why.'
The LGOIMA report shows the council rejected several other information requests on privacy grounds, and those decisions should be reviewed, Cr Cummings said.
The West Coast Regional Council received 27 LGOIMA requests over the quarter and granted 13 of them in full.
Ten were granted in part, with remaining questions declined.
Privacy grounds were cited in three other cases.
Information requested about the Taylorville Resource Park and its monitoring was partly withheld on grounds of privacy, maintenance of the law, legal privilege and to protect the free and frank exchange of information by or to council officers.
A request about the Te Kinga pest control aerial poison drop was refused in part to 'protect staff and contractors from improper pressure or harassment."
Another, about compliance monitoring, was declined to protect privacy and the integrity of the council's environmental complaints hotline.
Other requests were refused on commercial grounds, or because the information did not exist, or that collating it would require too much work.
The council has been approached for comment.