Official Information Request - Ombudsman's Report into Workshops

Sent: Monday, 27 November 2023 1:42 pm
Subject: LGOIMA request - Ombudsman's Report into Workshop Practices

I refer to your Official Information request of 1 November 2023 regarding the Ombudsman’s report following the investigation into workshop practices, and provide responses to your questions below.

I note your questions relate to the following pages of the Ombudsman’s Report:

Meeting & workshop practices at Rotorua Lakes Council, Page 3 Leadership & Culture
Meeting & workshop practices at Rotorua Lakes Council, Page 3 Leadership & Culture
Meeting & workshop practices at Rotorua Lakes Council, Page 4 Local authority meetings
Meeting & workshop practices at Rotorua Lakes Council, Page 12 Workshops (forums) My expectations
Meeting & workshop practices at Rotorua Lakes Council, Page 13 The Council’s practice around ‘forums’
Meeting & workshop practices at Rotorua Lakes Council, Page 25,26 Schedule 2A form

1. Of the 11 action points stated in the Ombudsman’s report, specifically which ones does council disagree with and on what basis does council disagree?
   Council does not disagree with the action points. Good business practise is to always be looking at ways to improve. The 11 actions give suggestions to Council, in the opinion of the Ombudsman, on improvements that can be made. The actions will be worked through in time as resourcing allows.
2. There are multiple instances in the Ombudsman’s Findings where council have acted in an inconsistent manner with both the Local Government Act and the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act, what actions are being taken to improve council’s adherence to these laws? The Ombudsman findings do not say that Council have acted in an inconsistent manner with the LGA and LGOIMA. The Ombudsman has said ‘……Council acted unreasonably through its approach to closing forums by default…….” Page1 Meeting and workshop practices at Rotorua Lakes Council. The Ombudsman goes on further to say ‘I saw no evidence in my investigation that actual and effective decisions were made in workshops…….” Page 7 – Open for Business October 2023. Council have stated they welcomed the recommendations and actions of the Ombudsman as noted in #1 above.
3. Is Council committed to upholding its obligations under the Public Records Act?Yes
4. What steps and/or work is being conducted or implemented by council to improve the perceptions of both council staff and the public on councils’ commitment to conducting its business with openness and transparency? Workshops and meetings are now “open to the public” by default.Council has introduced a new webpage for workshops. The date, time and purpose of the workshop is scheduled on the webpage and the session is live-streamed. Following the workshop the webpage is updated with the attendees and an executive summary of the purpose of the workshop.If it is deemed necessary that a workshop should be publically excluded, the website provides a reason for why this will be public excluded. Since the introduction of this new process there has only been one instance where a workshop has been required to be in public excluded. That was for the Museum in which a series of four workshops were conducted, of which one workshop has been confidential.
5. What steps and/or work is being conducted or implemented by council to implement an “open to the public” default stance for all meetings, workshops, forums, briefings etc? Workshops and meetings are now “open to the public” by default.
6. Is council creating a written process for making decisions to exclude the public from council meetings? Guidance is being prepared to assist report writers more when needing to apply the legislation in terms of public excluded sessions. This guidance is in addition to advice from the Governance and Democracy team on the preparation of reports and the possible threshold for a public excluded part or parts of a meeting.
7. What changes has council made to ensure all informal briefing sessions, workshops or forums are conducted in a transparent and accountable manner with full and accurate records?Workshops are now “open to the public” by default.Council has introduced a new webpage for workshops. The date, time and purpose of the workshop is scheduled on the webpage and the session is live streamed. Following the workshop the webpage is updated with the attendees and an executive summary of the purpose of the workshop.
8. What actions are being taken by council to remove the “ingrained aspect of the Council’s culture that forums should be closed to the public.”? As noted in 4, 5 and 7 workshops are now by default “open to the public”.
9. Will/is Council going to follow the Ombudsman’s Best practice Guides for councils? If not, why not? Yes
10. In future council meetings will any references to Council’s application of the public interest test be made readily available? Yes

You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of this response/decision. The Ombudsman’s Office can be contacted by calling 0800 802 602, emailing info@ombudsman.parliament.nz, online at www.ombudsman.parliament.nz, or by post to The Ombudsman, PO Box 10152, Wellington 6143.

Publication of responses to LGOIMA requests

Please note: Our LGOIMA responses may be published on the Rotorua Lakes Council website after they have been responded to, with requesters’ personal details withheld. If you have any concerns about this please contact the Council on info@rotorualc.nz.

Regards