Council meeting transparency on the rise

The number of items being considered confidentially at the City of Whittlesea Council meetings continues to drop.

Mayor Lawrie Cox said he’d made a concerted effort, as Mayor, to focus on ensuring as many Council decisions as possible were made in a public forum.

“When we’ve had contracts to consider, we’ve been ensuring that the topic is discussed in an open meeting and then just the financials are reserved for confidential – for commercial-in-confidence reasons,” he said.

Former Mayor Kris Pavlidis has applauded Cr Cox for continuing the move towards a more open and transparent Council.

“During my term as Mayor I also made it my priority to reduce the number of items being considered behind closed doors,” she said.

The figures show that for the period January 2016 to October 2017, 41.27% of Council business was being considered in confidential with that number dropping to 13.18% from November 2017 to April 2019.

“I’m proud that decisions are being made in a public and transparent manner,” Cr Cox said.

“We take our decision-making role seriously and are making decisions that are seeing some great projects come to fruition.”

Council meetings are held on the first Tuesday night of the month at 6.30pm at the Civic Centre in South Morang.