31 March 2020
Media: Rotorua Daily Post
Topic: Tourists at Ohinemutu Village
Enquiry
I'm doing a story on some of the residents worried about tourists still wandering around their village. They have asked the council to put up some signs which I believe was done yesterday. Is someone able to answer the following for me before midday today please, hopefully it's pretty straight forward?
- Have signs been erected in Ohinemutu and what did they say?
- Are tourists/visitors still allowed to walk through Ohinemutu village?
Response
We spoke to the reporter to seek more detail and to suggest she speak to the police regarding her second question.
She informed us she had not spoken to anyone at Ohinemutu but had seen something on Facebook.
We suggested she speak to residents at Ohinemutu and come back to us if she still had questions for Council. We did not hear back.
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Media: Local Democracy Reporter
Topic: Council meeting recording
Enquiry
NOTE: This enquiry is additional to yesterday's enquiry from the Local Democracy Reporter regarding last week's meeting and the recording of it
Can the council account for that five minute gap (or indeed any of the 'jumps' in the footage)? Is there an explanation for that?
Can the council confirm it will be ensure live public access to (public) meetings going forward? Is this a priority?
Can the council please explain why the meeting could not have been live-streamed as usual on Wednesday?
Subsequent question 1:
So, to confirm, the council cannot account for those gaps in the footage?
Subsequent question 2:
The questions don't pertain to the public excluded part where the council clearly voted to go into public excluded, those time stamps are elsewhere in the meeting. Unless you mean those parts were public excluded? In which case we don't see the council voting on that.
Subsequent question 3:
Please let me know if the council or mayor would like to respond to any of these comments from the Taxpayers' Union:
Live-streaming technology is not rocket science, and it doesn't need slick presentation. At the very least the mayor can ask a staff member to stream from their phone to the council Facebook page.
A live stream doesn't just provide public access to council meetings - it provides assurance to ratepayers that they are watching unedited footage with same level of transparency as sitting in a public gallery. When Rotorua District Council uploads a recording six hours after the fact, with significant gaps or edits in the footage, they risk losing the trust of their ratepayers.
Live-streaming council meetings was good practice before the current crisis, and now this kind of transparency is more important than ever. Financial decisions will be made with significant effects on ratepayers, such as whether councils will mitigate or even freeze rate hikes, and whether they will cover revenue shortfalls with spending cuts or new borrowing.
We're currently writing to every mayor and regional council chair in the country to remind them of their transparency obligations under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act, especially as some councils hand over decision making powers to emergency committees.
Response
The following information was provided:
As per our previous response, the recording included all but matters that were dealt with in confidential.
As per our previous response, we are still working on how any meetings that need to be held during the lockdown will be conducted and will advise once details have been finalised.
Council did not have time to test running Zoom and livestreaming simultaneously and the priority was on ensuring that elected members who were unable to be physically present were able to participate effectively in the meeting.
Subsequent response 1:
As per previous responses, confidential matters are not included in the public footage. For your further understanding, this includes matters relating to CE recruitment and security-related information about CCTV operations.
Subsequent response 2:
The confidential matters referred to in the previous response (CE recruitment and security-related information about CCTV operations) were outside of the part of the meeting where you can see elected members voting to go into confidential.
We anticipate both use of the technology and conducting meetings in this way will improve as everyone becomes more familiar with it all.
Subsequent question 3:
The reporter was informed neither council nor the mayor had any comments regarding the Taxpayers' Union comments.
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Media: Local Democracy Reporter
Topic: Recycling during COVID-19 lockdown
Enquiry
NOTE: This enquiry is additional to yesterday's enquiry from the Local Democracy Reporter regarding recycling during the COVID-19 lockdown
I have a follow up for this one, deadline for 11 am tomorrow please.
Why is it still possible to recycle glass but not other recyclables?
Response
The following information was provided:
Glass recycling company O-I New Zealand is authorised by the Government to continue operations during Alert Level 4. Smart Environmental has agreed to continue supplying glass to O-I during the isolation period with additional protection for staff. Usually glass is separated into colours however, due to the risk of touching items, O-I has agreed to take mixed glass for the duration of the Alert Level 4 isolation period. In contrast Materials Recycling Facilities (facilities for sorting plastics, paper, cardboard) require hand sorting because there is no market for mixed recyclables.
