The following post on Council’s secrecy has appeared on Cr. Pilling’s blog under the heading of “Council meeting items and the issue of confidentiality”.
“The seemingly burgeoning amount of in-camera (confidential) agenda items not only here in Glen Eira but also in other municipalities including the City of Melbourne where a recent meeting had less than twenty mins of public discussion has been highlighted recently. I acknowledge the concerns raised on this issue by the local website Glen Eira debates.
Yesterday I raised the following points with other Crs and the CEO.
-“One of the issues for Glen Eira in 2012 is how to address the seemingly increasing amount of confidential items that are held in the in-camera section of the meeting agenda- increasingly so over the past few years.
Our aim as a Council should be to reduce this to the essential minimum so as to allow for as maximum public discussion as possible on agenda items.
Whilst I acknowledge that there are instances such as business tenders and OH @ S issues that require confidentiality I feel that there needs to be far greater efforts in keeping other items in the public agenda. Other councils such as Port Phillip if necessary spilt the item in two to allow for public discussion.
At each of the pre-meeting assemblies there should be an improved discussion and questioning as to the why and of the need for any proposed confidential agenda item,”
COMMENT: We acknowledge that this is a step forward in meeting community concerns and congratulate Cr. Pilling on his initiative and making his email public. However, we see a real paradox in the suggested ‘solution’. Discussions will again be held behind closed doors; excuses and (spurious?) explanations as to why something should remain ‘confidential’ will be provided and that will be the end of the story. The solution must be open, frank, and full discussion on this issue in ordinary council meetings. The Grill’d episode is the perfect example of why there needs to be public explanation as to why Newton deemed this item as confidential. Councillors have it in their power to remove ‘confidential’ status via a vote and resolution. Even if this vote is defeated, it will serve the interests of transparency – let the community know how each councillor votes and the reasoning behind such voting. Secondly, if councillors are really concerned about how this council operates, then they should focus their attention on the Local Law and the meeting procedures. This draconian and anti-democratic document needs to be rescinded and then rewritten. Posturing behind closed doors does not serve the public interest!
Glen Eira Debates 
January 20, 2012 at 12:11 PM
I agree fully with the view of glen eira here. Keeping conversations to the backroom is not my idea of accountability. Even when you’re talking tenders other councils publish the criteria and the rankings and the amounts. Nothing is published here about the specific criteria and even half of the tenders don’t get put out into the public arena. Why not? There’s no excuse not to publish after the decision has been made.
January 20, 2012 at 12:37 PM
I didn’t see Cr Pilling’s suggestion as a solution, but as one possible element of a broader strategy to improve the situation. I agree its flawed. After all, Council’s Local Law s224 gives states the CEO or his/her delegate is responsible for preparing the notice papers and agenda for all meetings. The CEO gets to choose whether an item appears in the Confidential Items section. The appointment of a CEO committed to transparent and accountable governance is therefore pivotal.
A more comprehensive strategy would be to commit to recording in the Minutes what is required by LGA s93. If a matter is treated as Confidential, it shouldn’t be sufficient to nominate one of the excuses given in s89(2). A more detailed explanation should be provided outlining the harm that is likely to occur should the matter be handled publicly, and be included in the Minutes. Even if a matter is Confidential, the resolutions made, along with a summary of the information considered in reaching those decisions, should be in in the Minutes. I would hope that the detailed consideration required would discourage confidentiality as the default position. Redact a document if necessary, but don’t suppress everything. [Redacted documents are interesting in themselves as they can reveal much about the sensitivity of powerful people.]
Since Cr Pilling mentions the City of Melbourne, there are strong reasons why I think secrecy stinks. Cr Doyle in his public statements indicated it was his decision to involve police in the eviction of protestors from the City Square. This was without Council resolution authorizing him, on a matter that had been delegated to council officers, in which their Local Law didn’t authorize officers to use police brutality as an enforcement method for a breach of Local Law. [The Local Law specifies the enforcement action that should have been taken.] Cr Doyle also, successfully and largely confidentially, defeated a motion by Cathy Oke calling for an investigation of the whole matter, despite such an investigation likely to have revealed multiple breaches of LGA and their LL. Nor have the Police been held to account for their breaches of the Summary Offences Act. Every element of this incident, other than the visible violence, has been suppressed. If MCC can use state-sanctioned violence against people unhappy with our collective government, then so can Glen Eira Council.
January 20, 2012 at 1:18 PM
A CEO “committed to transparent and accountable governance is therefore pivotal” you write. There’s the problem with Glen Eira Council in a nutshell. Slowly but surely every vestige of open government has been removed by Newton and his favoured few. In the end, all he needs to do is to curry favour with 5 councillors and he’s set. They vote in what he wants and his hands are clean, always using the excuse that “I don’t vote”. Couple this with keeping councillors in the dark (ie Grill’d; C60 and countless other projects) plus superficial officer reports to undermine informed decision making, and power is there for the taking.
January 20, 2012 at 1:26 PM
Hey anonymous – you’ve left out the other tactic of “I’m being bullied” to scare the shit out of any councillor whose seen as a threat to the dictatorship. Combine this with sudden urgent business such as gesac carparking and again you’re home free. No time to do anything, to check facts, or to get other opinions.
January 20, 2012 at 11:30 PM
Only in a vacuum of almost complete apathy can Newton and his sycophants carry out there charade and call it governance. After all 95% of people are quite happy knowing nothing about what happens on the broader scale in Glen Eira..
It just doesn’t interest them, until nimbyism kicks-in, then it time to scream like a banshee.
I think you have to recognise this reality and find way of sorting the honest men from the liars and ousting the undesirables.
Maybe we have one to many levels of government in Victoria, and the local level should vanish, personally I think this would be a shame, but it may solve the problems these little would-be politicians bring.
I fell if we keep on corportising the role of local government as Newton wants to because it give him power and a meaning to life. We are on the road to nowhere as a community. What are we, residents or clients, clients or ratepayers, ratepayers or shareholders in the good ship Glen Eira Inc. Maybe we would be better off as shareholders, at least we could have a vote at the AMG to sack none preforming CEO’s.
January 24, 2012 at 2:19 AM
Why didn’t ratepayers listen to the “good reasons” for
1 Sawing off good public seating in Koornang Road and leasing it to some
corporate? Will the area of the former Jersey Parade which is this be sold
off to any interested parties just as Bond Street ,(south) and the eastern
end of Glen Eira Road????? Maybe we should have kept it as a road and
put the library ofn a house site as thus eased Carnegie congestion
2 When did I hear council vote on wasting money erecting pointless barriers
along the western side of Queens Avenue???
I MUST NEED TO STUDY AUSLAN