Ombudsman forces RDC to Apologise
- Barry Murphy
- Apr 10
- 2 min read
We have now submitted for RDC to release the information they were refusing to release.
Dear Ohakune Ratepayers and Residents' Society Inc,
Request for information relating to descriptions of publicly excluded meetings
I am writing to apologise for the Ruapehu District Council's response to your request dated 30 October 2023 for "a more accurate description of each public excluded meeting since 2020."
The Chief Ombudsman has completed his investigation into your complaint (CASE-005582, GROUND-0005982) and found that our response was unreasonable. We accept this finding.
We acknowledge that our past practice for describing publicly excluded sessions did not provide sufficient transparency about the matters being discussed and relied too heavily on simply citing the LGOIMA grounds for exclusion.
The Council has formally accepted all of the Ombudsman's recommendations and is committed to improving our practices. We are implementing the following changes to our procedure for describing publicly excluded sessions:
1. We will ensure our descriptions provide a clear statement of the general subject matter being discussed, rather than using generic terms.
2. We will continue our practice of noting when specific people are permitted to remain in the meeting due to their knowledge that would assist the Council.
We are seeking further guidance from the Ombudsman on practical examples of compliant resolutions that we can implement particularly regarding how to effectively articulate the balance between withholding information and public interest considerations. We have expressed our intention to suggest that these examples be included in the LGNZ Guide to Standing Orders to help all local government organisations achieve a consistent approach.
We believe these improvements will address the concerns that led to your original request and subsequent complaint. The Ombudsman's recommendations and our acceptance of them bring this matter to a conclusion. Going forward, our meeting documentation will provide the level of transparency and detail required by the LGOIMA and expected by our community, making further requests of this nature unnecessary.
We appreciate your advocacy in bringing this matter to attention, as it has led to improvements in our procedures that will benefit all residents.
If you would like to discuss this matter further, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Yours sincerely,
Clive Manley
Chief Executive
Ruapehu District Council
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