Mayor of Campbelltown Darcy Lound has defended the controversial decision to axe live streaming of councillor briefings.
Speaking to the South West Voice today, Cr Lound said Tuesday night’s vote – 8-7 in favour of ending live streaming – was appropriate given the NSW local government minister was conducting a review of the code of meeting practice framework.
“If we continued livestreaming, as the only council in NSW, and the minister came in after the review and said we’re not going ahead with it because councils don’t support it, we would look silly.
“But at the same time, if the minister comes in and say, councils support it so let’s do it, well, we would revisit the issue of live streaming councillor briefings,’’ Cr Lound said.
The review by the minister was one of the reasons given for the motion to axe live streaming; the other was that council officers would feel inhibited or constrained in providing advice to councillors.
Mayor Lound told the Voice neither the council CEO Lindy Deitz or senior officers had formally expressed any concerns about briefings being livestreamed.
The proposed changes, including the axing of the live streaming provisions, will now go on public exhibition seeking submissions from residents.
Council voted to introduce live streaming of councillor briefings back in March.
Just two councillors voted against that motion, Labor’s Meg Oates and Karen Hunt.
The proposal went on public exhibition and returned to council for a final vote in July, when it was passed unanimously.
In August, the first – and now likely last – live streaming of councillor briefings took place.
Just 13 people watched it, but it was historic nonetheless because Campbelltown had become the first council in NSW to live stream such meetings.
George Greiss, the mayor at the time who’s now retired, received a letter from the local government minister, Ron Hoenig, congratulating Campbelltown Council.
“I commend council for taking active steps to promote transparency by amending its code of meeting practice to require the webcasting of councillor briefings,’’ wrote the NSW Labor minister, a former mayor himself in the inner city.
“This is a positive step towards transparency in local government,’’ Mr Hoenig wrote.
“No decision made by a councillor should be made with the benefit of information provided to them by staff behind closed doors.’’
The Voice asked Mayor Lound if Minister Hoenig’s support of live streaming had been taken into consideration before a decision was taken to try to reverse the live streaming decision.
“Yes, it was, given his current review of the whole process,’’ Cr Lound said.
Labor’s six councillors and the two Macarthur Greens councillors voted for the motion when it was put.
The other seven councillors, who argued in favour of keeping live streamings, voted against the plan to axe them.
Cr Cotter urged council to give live streaming a chance.
“We haven’t even tried it, and we should at least start and see how it goes,’’ he said.
One of the newly elected councillors, Cameron McEwan (Sustainable Australia Party) revealed he had watched the one and only live streaming of councillor briefings on August 6.
“I found it incredibly informative,’’ he told council on Tuesday night.
For the record, these are the two sections council voted to drop from the meeting code of conduct:
4.5 Councillor briefings will be livestreamed on Council’s website except where an item has been determined confidential.
4.6 Councillor briefing sessions are to be held in person. Whilst the public are not able to attend the Councillor briefing in person, members of the public are encouraged to observe briefing proceedings on the livestream on Council’s website.
Live streaming the public speaking comment section of the council meetings would be of more interest to the average ratepayer, keeping them up to date of what’s going on in their council’s area.
Liverpool council refuses to do so up ’till now, citing “legal issues” of what might be said by speakers, probably because there may be some derogatory comments directed at council’s performances, which they don’t want to be aired, which is the more likely aversion to livestreaming of the public speaking section of general council meetings in my opinion.
It would be refreshing to hear what ratepayers really think about the council’s administrative and operational performance.