My letter of 14 January 2011 commented about Council meetings occurring where the ratepayer/public are excluded for some reason especially when this relates to City Partners and spending ratepayers money, it seems that others have written also and noted the same concerns that I have.
There are only two genuine reasons for Council having secret meetings and they are: -
1. The decision(s) being made does not stand up to public or independent scrutiny, and/or
2. Council should not be indulging itself in it because it is not an 'essential” Council function.
Perhaps it is appropriate that Council place some City Partner information out in the public arena, there is no confidentiality as it is public money that is being spent.
This could start with disclosing some information about a sample of interesting City Partners like: - OPUS, Trustpower, BOP Times, Simpson Grierson, Cooney Lees & Morgan and Nutech Security for a start.
Council should provide to The Sun a list of monies paid (including CCO's) to and from each one annually for the last three years to 30-June-2010, this then should be published in full.
Ian Stevenson, Avenues.