Dear Ruapehu District Council,

I refer you to a recent investigation carried out by the Ombudsman into local council meetings and workshops; more specifically pages 23 to 26 governing meetings and going into committee to discuss matters.
The report can be downloaded here - https://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/reso...

To Summarise:
- The resolution to exclude the public must be made in the form set out in Schedule 2A of the LGOIMA30, and must include
- the general subject of any matters to be considered while the public is excluded
- The general subject of matters to be considered should be detailed enough to give the public a clear sense of the matter being discussed, in the interest of being as open as possible about the work a council is conducting

It also states "It is also good practice to ensure there is a process for re-visiting public excluded parts of meetings to determine if any of the information heard in a public excluded part of a meeting can subsequently be released, when the reasons for withholding the information no longer apply."

I note from agendas released by council since 2020 (Resolution to Exclude the Public for Consideration of Council Business), that Teitei Drive has not been mentioned, nor any other broad terms relating to social housing or CIP funding.
Confidential briefings reviewed since 2020 mostly contain "Confidential Briefing", however the following items were disclosed as the "General Subject of each matter to be considered".
- 23 Feb 2022 - "Social Housing Complex Seddon Street, Raetihi". Following this, 30th March 2023 a report was released for the LTP under "Changes from LTP" disclosing amounts to be spent on Seddon Street Social Housing Complex
- April 2020 - "Housing Options for Ruapehu District" & "Update Report: Housing Options for Ruapehu District",
- 20 May 2020 - "C1: Housing Options Update", "C3: Funding Agreement between MBIE and RDC for the Worker Redeployment on Local Roading Projects"
- 5 August 2020 - "C1: Housing Initiative"
- 26 August 2020 - "C1: Housing Initiative Update", "C2: Preliminary Housing Information Report – Liveability and Wellbeing Study"

As is evident, since the adoption of the "Public and Affordable Housing Asset and Tenancy Management Strategy" in Nov 2020, no future records for "Exclude the Public for Consideration of Council Business" recorded any clear reasons or summary of items for discussion have been documented, other than stating "Confidential Briefing".

Please could you provide the following information
1) What is RDC's policy on re-visiting public excluded parts of meetings and releasing the information

2) How many items since 2020 till today are still excluded from the public

3) Please provide a more accurate description of each public excluded meeting since 2020 as to date the agenda items on your website that we have downloaded, have been incorrectly documented or summarised.

4) Please advise a count of how many items (by count) since 2020 (that were in public excluded), relate to any sort of (social, affordable workers, rental) housing, be it funding applications, or resolutions, or actions, or discussions relating to Teitei Drive, Ohakune.

5) Please provide all public excluded meeting notes, discussions, minutes, documents, attachments, that relate to housing (as per above). You may redact over the items that are still of confidential nature, however please provide the entire documents so we can see a count of pages etc; to do with any matter the public has been excluded from.

6) In the same case as above, please provide any public excluded items that relate to the funding, land sale, gifting of land, resolutions, and any other relation to Teitei Drive, Ohakune prior to 4th April 2023 as this information was previously held due to commercial sensitivity before signing, however with the agreements now signed, these should now be available to the public.

7) Please provide any public excluded items relating to Ngāti Rangi, that are no longer items that should be excluded; if the items are still excluded, please provide them and redact over the information being withheld, so we can see a count of pages and any information in those pages that is of a general sense and can be released.

Yours faithfully,

Ohakune Ratepayers and Residents' Society Inc

Dear Tasha Paladin,

Thanks for your prompt response.

Answer 1, noted, does council plan to adopt a policy of this nature as suggested by the Ombudsman, and if so when?

Answer 2, was unanswered; I suspect because of question 1. The question still stands, what is the count of items excluded from public. A total count of reports tabled in the Public Excluded business of Council & a total of Public Excluded business of Council that remain witheld from Public (so two figures & exclude community boards and committees)

Answer 3, I refer you to the section 48 you have mentioned and it was the stated quotes I put within the original question; see Section 47(3)(a) "the general subject of each matter to be considered while the public is excluded".

I refer you to the Ombudsman's recent report, page 25, last paragraph discussing this matter, to quote "The general subject of matters to be considered should be detailed enough to give the public a clear sense of the matter being discussed, in the interest of being as open as possible about the work a council is conducting"

As I have stated, council have used the wording "Confidential Briefing" for a large portion of public excluded meetings, I have also pointed out the confidential meetings that discussed housing back in 2020, however no further meetings in 2021, 2022 or 2023.

I ask again that council review the public excluded meeting Schedule 2A forms and give a summary "detailed enough to give the public a clear sense of the matter being discussed", or in this case, what was to be discussed in those meetings.

Question 4, A total count of all reports, you may exclude community boards and committees and provide the report count based souls on "Public Excluded business of Council"

Question 4a, Same as above, but only a count of ones related to Teitei Drive, Ohakune

Question 5, May be restricted to Council and and committees. Please include minutes as well as attachments; this is for proceedings that relate to social, affordable workers, and rental housing in the Ruapehu District since 1 jan 2020 to 7 November 2023.

Question 6, may be ignored, I will request this in a new OIA request with more detailed questions.

Question 7, I am requesting information relating to Ngāti Rangi tabled in the Public Excluded business of Council on any topic since 1 jan 2020

Yours sincerely,

Ohakune Ratepayers and Residents' Society Inc

Dear Tasha Paladin,

Hope all is well.

Please confirm receipt of followup questions dated 7th November

Yours sincerely,

Ohakune Ratepayers and Residents' Society Inc