The Auckland Transport CCO has promised a lot about being open and transparent in its operation – and in some respects there have been good signs. The board papers from last month’s board meeting are now (finally) online, anyone who likes can rock along to the December meeting of the CCO’s board tomorrow (9am in the old Waitakere City Council chambers if you’re interested). Well, that is if all you’re interested in is the rather dry Statement of Intent for the organisation, rather than the much more interesting items that discussion upon will only take place behind closed doors.
Some of the stuff is legitimately to be undertaken in private – like staffing matters and the RFP for legal services. However, many of the really interesting discussion topics: like a further update on AIFS (integrated ticketing), the Rail Funding Gap, the proposed operating model for public transport, an update on Rail to the Airport and so forth – they really should be open to the public. There is significant public interest in these projects, there’s potentially a significant amount of public expenditure either going into the projects, or which will go into the projects.
Why are we excluded? Where’s the openness? Where’s the accountability? Where’s the transparency?
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that’s quite funny really – it’s like basically they’re holding a public meeting but the public is excluded from the entire agenda 🙂
LGOIMA…
Good idea Jeremy. I only had to broadly mention those six magic letters and I got emailed the previous month’s board papers quick smart so that Auckland Transport could avoid a specific request.
They are some of the magical letters, others include OIA and QWA…
What’s QWA?
Its hard for leopards to change their spots, we have to remember most of the AT staff and board members will be used to working in secret from the public so it will probably take time for a culture change
Some judicious application of the “I’m your boss, you serve at my discretion, and your letter of termination is just awaiting dating and signing” stick by Brown could be in order.
From AT’s perspective, “transparancy” is a courtesy, not a right.
Josh, do you think you’ll be getting the December Chief Executive’s report? Jon over at AKT has posted a “roundup” and I’d be interested to see some of the details of what he covered, particularly the isthmus bus service changes and plans to change traffic light phasing across the city.
I will ask. I am planning on making a LGOIMA request for everything at the meeting anyway.