Tag: Auckland Council

Live Beaming of Council Meetings Going Out for Tender

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Able to see some of the Council meetings on the Internet – live – again

 

After the Council last year switched off the high-speed wireless that would disable the video service All About Auckland being able to stream Council meetings live, Auckland Council has finally put out a tender to resume live streaming. From Stuff.co.nz:

Auckland Council to beam live 

LAURA WALTERS Last updated 13:55 23/04/2014

The Auckland Council plans to run a live webcast of 57 of its council meetings each year in a bid to increase transparency and raise awareness of the decision-making process.

The council has called for expressions of interest from people who could provide services needed for a live webcast of meetings.

In its information document, the council said it planned to provide a live webcast to make the political process more transparent, increase awareness of the decision-making process, reduce reliance on the media and recognise the increased size and impact of the council in New Zealand and the accompanying need to perform at a world-class level.

The webcasts would initially cover meetings of the mayor and 20 councillors and meetings of four committees.

The committees are the Auckland development committee, the finance and performance committee, the budget committee and the regional strategy and policy committee.

The average duration of each meeting was four hours, the council said.

Council spokesman Glyn Walters said the council had been planning to offer the webcasts since the council was set up in 2010.

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So the five meetings this live streaming is meant to cover are:

  1. The Governing Body (so the main Council itself) chaired by the Mayor
  2. The Budget Committee also chaired by the Mayor
  3. The Auckland Development Committee chaired by Deputy Mayor Penny Hulse
  4. The Strategy and Policy Committee chaired by Councillor George Wood
  5. The Finance and Performance Committee chaired by Councillor Penny Webster

 

The sub committees and forums that report back to the main committees above will not be beamed live on the Internet.

 

It will be good to have the live beaming restored after All About Auckland’s live streaming was dropped last year when the Council turned off the high-speed wireless inside the main Council Chambers. Yes the live beaming does allow more people across Auckland to watch and witness both the Governing Body, and the Committees of the Whole in action. The restoring of live beaming also allows people like myself to run live Tweeting and live Blogging when we are not able to make the Committees ourselves for whatever reason. And yes live Tweeting from the Governing Body and the Committees is (as I discovered) quite a popular service for people who either can not watch the video or be at the Council meeting.

I did notice this one liner from the Stuff article: “the council said it planned to provide a live webcast to make the political process more transparent, increase awareness of the decision-making process, reduce reliance on the media and recognise the increased size and impact of the council in New Zealand.”

Reduce the reliance on the media. Hmm the media are typically only at the Governing Body meetings and periodically maybe at the Budget Committee meetings. Otherwise it is just usually me and veteran reporter Bob Dey casting a very lonely presence at the media table while the Budget Committee, and Auckland Development Committee (both the most important committees after the Governing Body itself) meet and deliberate (with Bob also usually at the Strategy and Policy, and Finance and Performance Committees). So I do wonder if Council is having a go at a particular journalist or in a roundabout way trying to increase the visibility of the Committees.

None-the-less I doubt the Main Stream Media outlets will increase their reporting from Council even when the live beaming resumes. So it will be back down to the blogs and other social media outlets to help continuing to spread the word and provide commentary that would otherwise be absent.

 

Suppose we will have to wait and see how the tendering of this new beaming (streaming) service will go and whether the live streaming will be free.

 

Has the Public Lost Interest in the Council?

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Numbers suggest not

 

I noted yesterday that Councillor Cameron Brewer (surprise – surprise) released an “opinion” on the public losing interest with Auckland Council. The actual question is ‘has the public actually lost interest?’ I would say no and even Radio new Zealand’s Todd Niall would say no in his written correspondence earlier this week.

 

Lets take a look at what Councillor Brewer is saying this time.

From Voxy:

Opinion: Public lose interest in Auckland Council

Wednesday, 16 April, 2014 – 14:40

By Cameron Brewer, Auckland Councillor

The second term Auckland Council is proving to be an interesting one and very different to the inaugural 2010 – 2013 Governing Body.

We are currently going through a budget round to lock in where council’s $3b expenditure is directed for the forthcoming 2014/15 financial year.

This year we had fewer than 2,000 written submissions from the public on our Draft Annual Plan with only a few dozen turning up to speak to their submissions. The Mayor takes this as a vote of confidence in the council, but I take a different view.

My view is that the public interest in this council is at an all-time low because Aucklanders are increasingly of the view that this term is a bit of a lost cause, a bit of a political basket case. The Mayor has hung on to his political career but has lost a lot of political capital. Whatever your view on that, this is bad for Auckland.

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Todd Niall and myself have already commented on the low Annual Plan submission count and why it was that low. You can see my own commentary behind to low submission count (which includes extract’s from Todd’s analysis) here: “Todd Niall Hits the Budget Nail on its Head.”

From that commentary piece:

To be honest I can see why both the Annual Plan submission count is very low and how most submissions were pertaining to local rather than regional issues. For the low submission count the Annual Plan submissions were called for during the final weeks of the massive Unitary Plan submission period. With limited time and resources available a conscious call might have been made on which of the two submissions you would pick to get done. Is it the Annual Plan or is it the Unitary Plan? I made such a conscious decision and chose the Unitary Plan over the Annual Plan to dedicate my submission time to – so as a result no submission from me on the Annual Plan this round.

What also factored into not doing an Annual Plan submission this round was the knowledge knowing the 2015-2025 Long Term Plan (the main Council budget document) is coming up for debate soon. Something again Todd Niall points out…

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Maybe that’s why Aucklanders have turned out in such low numbers to have their say on this year’s annual plan. They know that far bigger debates lie ahead.

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Source: https://voakl.net/2014/04/15/todd-niall-hits-the-budget-nail-on-its-head/

Again I would say that is why the submission count is low not because we have lost interest but rather we had the Unitary Plan at the same time as well as knowing those bigger more important debates ahead (like the Long Term Plan).

The Unitary Plan submission count (at 8,900 as of the beginning of the month) I would say is a testimony to Auckland paying interest into what Council is doing. Of course we have the next Unitary Plan submission round late next month where anyone can submit on the points previously made (so no new material). Also if you are like me you are taking a break between all these big submission and consultation periods unless you want to burn yourself out from it all.

 

Continuing from Voxy

The lack of interest and coverage shows that the public and media have effectively given up on this term, with 2016 set to be a watershed election.

One thing’s for sure the third term will be just as different again with a new Mayor and many new councillors after a whole new public mandate and direction sought and secured.

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Be very careful what you wish for Councillor. I can assure you the public and media (both Main Stream, and Social) have certainly not given up on this term. That said I do believe and agree that the third term will be quite different with new Councillors including a possible replacement for Orakei Ward too 😉 .

 

Finally:

In the meantime all councillors are committed to making a difference. For me it means keeping the Mayor accountable and focusing on the likes of fighting for lower rates increases and pushing for more sustainable debt levels. I will also continue to advocate for regional funding for projects in the Orakei ward area.

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Groan…

Local Boards I thought would be the best advocates for getting funding for projects in their local area while ward Councillors are meant to be focusing on the big picture regional stuff. Or did Cameron not read this: Slow News Day. We Have the Bigger Picture to Focus On

 

Oh well I suppose the above was expected from Councillor Brewer.

In the mean time this storm outside is causing enough havoc as is – although I still have mains power in Papakura for now

 

Stay safe out there folks and keep listening to updates from Civil Defence please.