Circus, circus.

After a hectic week last week which included a number of council meetings and workshops, and the Well-Being Forum at the Convention Centre, this week has been much quieter. Wednesday 15th saw the opening of the new DOC exhibit at the i-Site and a celebration of its first birthday. It seems that the move to The Square has been successful in giving our information centre a higher profile and increasing numbers of visitors. The DOC exhibit is well worth seeing and contains information on some new summer tours. I encourage you all to visit the i-Site to check it out.

It’s now the early hours of the morning following our last council meeting. I am still winding down so thought I would take this opportunity to let you know how it all went.

The first business of the evening was a real slap in the face of democracy. Our Mayor decided to adjourn the meeting in order to allow public comment. Public comment is not permitted at council meetings (it is permitted at committee meetings) under Standing Orders. Now, you may think these Standing Orders need changing, but the fact of the matter is that much of what is contained in the PNCC Standing Orders is actually in the Local Government Act 2002.

Clause 27 (2)of Schedule 7 of the Act states: “The standing orders of a local authority must not contravene this Act, the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987, or any other Act.”
It also states: “16.Members to abide by standing orders
(1)A member of a local authority must abide by the standing orders adopted under clause 27.”
It therefore appears to be ILLEGAL to adjourn a meeting just to get around Standing Orders.

I questioned the Mayor over this and asked if we should be dealing with the issue by way of resolution. She said no. However, both our Standing Orders and the Act allow council to temporarily suspend Standing Orders on a vote of 75% of the councillors present. I doubt if anyone would have wanted to stop the representatives of DPA or the Ethnic Council from making public comment so following proper procedures would have probably had the same result.

Am I nitpicking? I don’t think so. The problem with the unexpected actions of the Mayor is that two community groups were encouraged to speak to council tonight while the other groups who have been affected by the decisions made tonight were not given any opportunity to do the same. There was no consultation or discussion with any of the other community groups, no knowledge of whether they wanted council to appoint a representative to their organisations, and if they were aware that this item was up for discussion tonight they were probably also aware that Standing Orders prohibited them from making public comment.
I feel that the actions taken tonight were undemocratic and will be very interested in the reaction of those other groups when they learn that they will now have a council representative interfering in their organisations.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the new, caring council in action!

The “rent-a-mob” crowd was in fine voice tonight after the circulation of an e-mail requesting citizens to come along. “COMMUNITY NEEDS TO PACK THE CHAMBER TO DEMONSTRATE TO COUNCIL HOW UNITED WE ARE”. I know it is not very polite to call the audience a rent-a-mob, but that is the way the majority behaved tonight. When a councillor spoke of things they supported this was greeted with cheers and applause. When a councillor, who they clearly presumed was not going to back their opinions (and sometimes they were wrong in their presumption) the speaker was greeted with abuse and catcalls.
The sotto voce abuse and comments continued almost non-stop, accompanied by the occasional loud interjection. It is very difficult to hear speakers and to have reasoned debate when subjected to three hours of interruption from the gallery.

You will no doubt read in the Standard later today about the decisions made tonight. You may also read some comments that I made to the reporter. I have some very real concerns about this council’s ability to efficiently manage the billion dollar operation that is the city council. Proper process and procedures are increasingly ignored. I cannot accept what appear to be breaches of the law and I will not accept actions which pervert democracy.

We have a Mayor who has no policy or vision, beyond an unquantifiable “putting the community back into council”. I want to see a united council working harmoniously in the best interests of the city but it seems our Mayor doesn’t know how to work co-operatively. It’s early days yet and she may, hopefully, develop some leadership skills along with a realisation that we are all there working for the same thing - the best interests of the city as a whole. Antics like tonights, where favoured groups get preferential treatment and others get ignored - and the law appears to be breached to accomplish this - leave me very worried about how the rest of this term is going to work out.

Hopefully, too, chairmanship skills will improve. At the moment, we have a circus.
When the clowns start running the show from the benches, and the ringleader is more concerned with gaining the approval of the clowns than keeping the show running properly, who is going to ensure the Big Top doesn’t topple? One could hope that there would be enough workmen around to do that. When those same workmen are faced with untold talkfests and are kept having to fight outbreaks of fire, there is real danger in the whole show folding.

Ah well, back to the circus later today. 4.30pm and 7.30pm workshops. To think I used to enjoy visiting the circus when I was young. Little did I know I would be working in one!