Sign In / Register
Conditions of entry could soon be posted in Rodney Local Board offices and boardrooms to make it clear what the public can and can’t do when attending meetings and workshops.
The suggestion came up during a discussion on June 11 about the open workshops and video recording of business meetings trial had gone since being introduced in the middle of last year.
Local area manager Lesley Jenkins, who works with two other Auckland local boards, said she would be proposing simple, standard terms of entry that could be shared with all boards.
“We don’t want to exclude people, but it’s so we can say this is our process, it’s the same in all our premises,” she said.
“Then we could point out that if you’re in here, please don’t record, please don’t take photos. It is intimidating for people and we want to make it safe for everybody.”
Coincidentally, the discussion took place not long after a member of the public had left the workshop following a confrontation over whether he had been filming proceedings.
Steven Law, who attends most board meetings and workshops either in person or online, was questioned by chair Brent Bailey when he was seen holding his phone up.
Law said he was not filming, he was just waiting for a text. Bailey said it was intimidating for staff and asked him to put his phone away, or leave. After several minutes of back and forth on both sides, Law said he would leave “to appease some people in this room”.
During the open workshop discussion later, members agreed that having clear guidelines on such issues would benefit everybody.
On the subject of opening up workshops generally, most members said it had been a good thing for helping to let people know what the board was doing, as matters were often discussed in more detail there than at subsequent monthly board meetings, where actual decisions were made.
Members heard that out of Auckland’s 21 local boards, only three continued to exclude the public from workshops.
The topic of whether workshops should be video recorded, as monthly meetings now are, was also debated. Several members were in favour, saying it would help them as well as the public.
“Some people miss what we’re saying and they get it secondhand. By keeping it as open as you can there is no confusion,” Wellsford member Colin Smith said. “When workshops were closed, everyone was as suspicious as hell.”
Another member, Geoff Upson, was in favour of recording, even if only for members’ own benefit.
“Listening back to business meetings and deputations has been hugely beneficial, I’ve picked things up that I didn’t pick up the first time around,” he said. “It would be good to record workshops and keep recordings until the item has come to a business meeting.”
Others were concerned at the potential for council staff to be exposed on social media and the onset of AI that could take workshop proceedings and misrepresent what had actually happened.
