An interesting agenda item is on the Derwent Valley Councils agenda for tonight’s meeting and deserves a bit of public scrutiny. The item of concern is under the heading
1.4 Powers and functions of the special committee (page 15)
- The Chairperson or any representative of any committee is not authorised to undertake a press release or communicate any decision of the committee prior to approval being given by the Mayor.
All information discussed and actioned from any Special Committee will now have to gain approval from the Mayor to communicate outside of that meeting. A couple of comments are worthy here; the Mayor has been very slow in responding to requests for information from the Friends of Willow Court Special Committee. The other point to be made is how good a job is the Derwent Valley Council doing in getting the word out about happenings at Willow Court and its preservation? The last media release was in JUNE 2013, yes that is right, JUNE 2013 over a year ago, so not a record that you would be proud of.
It would appear that this is more to do with a political agenda than it is about letting the rate payers of the Derwent Valley know how their rates are being spent. Also if committee members were unable to attend a meeting, but rang the next day to ask what transpired, the Chairperson or any other committee member would have to first contact the Mayor to get permission to divulge the information. Does this rule apply to Councillors who provide information to the community via blog spots or a personal news website?
There are a great number of Special Committee’s formed by the Derwent Valley Council made up of many people freely giving up their time volunteering to progress the Derwent Valley Council’s agenda and not to deal with gag bylaws that have a political agenda.
There are normal committee processes that decisions can stay “in committee” until it is decided that it can be released, this is normal professional practice and would apply when the information is of a sensitive nature or related to ongoing inquiries or has some commercial sensitivity. Having this extra burden on Special Committees means that their work will now be locked up. In some cases for years to come.
Read the Agenda in full.