Council ‘stuck in a rut of secrecy’ despite nearly 80 communications staff

Tuesday, 16 July 2024

Environment Canterbury employs more than 880 people, including 78 in its communications department, but is coming under fire for a culture of secrecy. (File photo)

A former Environment Canterbury (ECan) chairperson has accused the council of being “stuck in a rut of secrecy”, even as new figures show the communications and engagement team now nudges 80 employees, nearly 10% of the workforce.

This compared to 16 employees in the strategy and planning department, and 120 in the council’s science department.

Staff numbers provided to The Press under official information law also revealed 15 staff in Brand and Digital Channels, 54 in Digital Solutions, and just four in RMA [Resource Management Act] Investigations.

ECan did not comment when asked how many staff were directly involved in monitoring consents.

A spokesperson declined to comment on the size of the communications team, but referred The Press to a 2023 statement in which communications and engagement director Tafflyn Bradford-James pointed to “greater community expectations for information” and government policies requiring “more direct interaction with specific community and industry groups” as context.

Its communications team included graphic design, web and digital channels, customer services, youth, stakeholder and community engagement, as well as internal and external communications, she said.

Ongoing secrecy

However, the large communications team is unable to shed light on the investigation into chairperson Peter Scott.

Scott stood down more than 10 weeks ago following revelations he was farming without consent on land he did not own.

ECan has declined to disclose basic details of the investigation, including who is conducting it or the terms of reference.

Former ECan chairperson Sir Kerry Burke slammed the silence. “What on earth is going on with the chairman who has been stood down?

“Councillors don’t even know who is conducting the inquiry, or what the terms of reference are, and ratepayers are paying for all of it.”

He said the investigation should be being led by a retired judge or King’s Counsel ”with a lot of public information about the terms of reference and who’s doing it”.

Sir Kerry Burke, seen here during one of the final ECan meetings before it was disbanded by the then-National Government in 2010, is exasperated by the council’s culture of secrecy. (File photo)

He said ECan was “stuck in a rut of secrecy” and the silence led people to think there was “a cover up” even when this was unlikely.

Burke also criticised the number of communications staff and too few doing consent monitoring.

“Maybe it’s just a test of what the organisation is turning into, not really fulfilling its mandate of managing consents properly, monitoring consents and breaches,” he said.

Councillor Greg Byrnes is pushing for changes to make ECan more open to the public, including doing away with closed workshops, and improving record keeping. (File photo)

Burke was concerned about ECan’s transparency during his time at the organisation in the late 1990s and early 2000s. “Staff would invent reasons why things should be discussed in private when I thought the number of public excluded sessions should be very small.

“It seems to me the culture of the senior managers - they had a field day when the commissioners were appointed - that culture has remained there.”

In March, councillors voted down a move to make their work more open to the public.

Councillor Greg Byrne’s motion would have seen ECan match a decision by the Christchurch City Council to ditch secret meetings, briefings and workshops, and make meetings open to the public by default.

Councillor Joe Davies was behind a 2023 bid to have council meetings livestreamed. ECan is one of only two regional councils yet to livestream its meetings. (File photo)

Byrne said ECan operated under “a veil of secrecy”.

“We are so risk averse that we would rather pull down the shutters and say nothing and hope that it goes away.”

Not only were meetings not livestreamed, the “appalling” quality of the subsequent minutes meant no-one would be able to understand how a decision was made, he said.

Transparency and openness were guiding principles of public service, Byrnes said.

A 2023 bid by councillor Joe Davies to open up meetings ended up being handled behind closed doors. However, livestreaming of council meetings is expected to begin in the coming months.

Davies said staff had “listened to councillors” and taken on board chief ombudsman Peter Boshier’s 2023 report, which found councils were doing too much of their business behind closed doors.