Public to get say at forum before council committee meeting

A new public forum looks set to take place before Marlborough’s economic, finance and community committee meetings under a year-long trial.

The idea has been spearheaded by committee chairperson councillor Jamie Arbuckle who said he had been researching how other councils used a public forum.

Arbuckle told councillors at a committee meeting on Tuesday some councils had a “very established” forum, often held before every meeting.

The idea was to allow the public to speak up to five minutes before a meeting. The topics of the forum would be restricted to items specifically in the agenda.

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A report prepared for Tuesday’s meeting said the chairperson would have the discretion to decline to hear a speaker or terminate their presentation if they repeated views voiced by an earlier speaker, criticised a councillor or council officers, were disrespectful or offensive, had previously spoken on the same issue, or if the matter was subject to legal proceedings.

Blenheim ward councillor Gerald Hope congratulated Arbuckle and said he thought introducing a forum was “long overdue”.

However, Hope questioned whether the forum was best placed before a committee meeting.

Hope, a former District Health Board (DHB) elected board member, said at every full board meeting there was time set aside for the public to present.

He said members of the public would seek clarification and information, which was often dealt with offline. He also said it was often infrequently used.

“There was no debate, no discussion, no challenges,” he said.

“Those people who did use it, usually had very strong alliances to a particular aspect of the health system that they felt was providing an inadequate service, so they wanted to express that first hand.”

While Hope said he supported the idea and thought it was a “good thing”, he questioned whether it would be better placed at full council, when all committee meetings are discussed and in the agenda.

Likewise, deputy mayor David Croad said he was supportive of running the trial, but questioned the “mechanics” of how it would come together.

He said as a councillor he often came to a meeting with questions about an agenda item but may or may not choose to speak on that following a presentation about the specific topic.

He wondered how a member of the public could come and talk prior to a meeting without having heard the topic be presented.

However, Marlborough mayor Nadine Taylor, who worked with Arbuckle on developing the forum together, thought the structure made sense.

“Certainly councillor Arbuckle was the driving force behind this concept and was very keen to see this introduced, my view is that we have the chair who is very keen to lead this piece of work, and I’m very supportive of it,” Taylor said.

“I think it’s important that we open up the chambers and the decision-making to the community in every way that we can.

“My view is that council committees are the workhorse of council … this is where we really work through the papers in detail. And I think that’s the right place for the community to come as we are working through the papers, before that point of ratification.

“Having said that, it is a trial and if we feel at the end of that, that it should be opened to the other committees … or indeed transfer it to full council, I think that’s something we will discuss as a council.”

The introduction of the public forum was subject to full council approval on March 2.