Local board meeting broadcasts trialled

Anyone who has ever wondered exactly what goes on at a Rodney Local Board meeting will be able to see for themselves from next month, after members voted to record and broadcast their monthly business meetings online.

The move to video meetings came from Warkworth member Michelle Carmichael, who said recording what went on would allow for greater transparency and support democratic accountability.

She said some local boards were already doing this, as were Auckland Council committees and the governing body.

“Various members of the community have said to me that they are not able to attend our meetings during the day and wished recordings of the local board were available to be viewed at a time convenient to them,” she said. “It’s about getting what we do out there to the public a bit more.”

Mahurangi Matters made a submission in support of the proposal, saying that not only would it enable journalists to cover meetings more effectively, the practice was already well established elsewhere such as at Kaipara District Council, which broadcasts all its meetings via YouTube.

Two members expressed concerns about security issues around putting recordings onto a public streaming site, and effectively giving people the opportunity to download, adapt or take content out of context.

Mark Dennis said he didn’t think the benefits outweighed the risks and cost.

“We’re a very relaxed board and I know the chair, myself and others, we do say things out of context and people who do not watch the full footage may not get why we’re saying certain things,” he said.

“It’s a bit of a risk. It’s different with the other boards and other departments, they’re big important bodies. Not a lot of people would benefit from it here.”

Guy Wishart agreed, and was also worried about members grandstanding in front of the camera for political ends, but said in the end that the transparency argument swung it for him.

“Recordings could be used and clipped in a way that could be used repeatedly online, where things are taken out of context to mean something completely different to what they were,” he said. “That’s why it has to remain a trial, because if anything like that happened, we would need to revisit it and decide whether we should carry on.

“There are risks, but I think for transparency’s sake, it is worth a trial.”

Chair Brent Bailey thought it could even put people off standing for the local board.

“We’re all going to end up as memes, you know that, don’t you? This is going to be a reason not to run and participate in this process.”

Carmichael said recording meetings could actually help members by providing an accurate record of who said what.

“At the moment, people can say what they like and if that happens, we don’t have any proof after the event, so I think it’s a protection for us as well,” she said. “It works both ways.”

Members voted to record all local board business meetings for a six-month trial, starting June 19, and share video links on the Rodney Local Board Facebook page, with a review of the process in November. Dennis and Bailey voted against.