Democracy in our Municipalities

03/01/2009

It seems to me that there has been a growing amount of censorship over the ability of the
community to ask questions about the decisions and actions of the council or councillors. There
are an alarming number of reports that indicate quite a large amount of censorship and denying
open and transparent decision making at the local government level.

From a range of discussions and interactions on here and through other social networks (RTL and
online), the level of diminution in the capacity for the community to probe and question the
conduct, behaviour and decisions of individual councillors; senior Council staff and the Council as
a whole. Just looking at the experience in my own municipality, the right of the community to
question or raise issues of concern at meetings has been significantly watered down to the point of
being useless. All questions, limit of three, have to be in writing, submitted in writing on the
appropriate form before the start of the meeting; and the questions asked during the ‘public
question time’ are determined by the Council. In fact the questions asked are read out by a council
officer, not even the person submitting the question.

In addition, while the right to question and probe has been watered down, the Council has been
more than prepared to increase fines and relax what constitutes a breach of the code of conduct
for meeting observers. I also have found something quite common is the refusal of third party
individuals or groups from recording public council meetings; unless they are officially registered
press. I’m not entirely sure why councillors are so afraid of having the meetings recorded by
others. Perhaps it would prevent some councillors making un-true statements during council
election campaigns. Or maybe it could be used to remind councillors about the decisions they’ve
made as opposed to the promises they make.

With the amount of responsibility that local governments have over delivering essential, every-day
amenities, services and activities; the ability to decide on developments and city development; I
strongly believe that they, albeit stuck between a rock (federal government) and a hard place (state
government) or vice versa, have an obligation to be (more) transparent as individual councillors
and as a council as a whole. The measures put in place across many municipalities up and down
the eastern sea board to my knowledge appear to be counter to democratic practices and
principles.

It must be up to voters in municipalities to elect candidates that truly seek to improve the
transparency of not only the council but themselves too.