HHR CB meeting 14-Mar-24
Cody C made this Official Information request to Christchurch City Council
Currently waiting for a response from Christchurch City Council, they must respond promptly and normally no later than (details and exceptions).
From: Cody C
Dear Christchurch City Council,
Please supply, in relation to HHR CB, communications from start of term till the date of this request, that includes:
a) Board members expressing dissatification about other board members, the chair and / or deputy chair, including (but not limited to) "the emails" referred to by Cr. Moore made at the last CB meeting on 14 March 2024; and
b) Complaints from HHR CB members against Council staff generally; and
c) Complaints about HHR Community Governance staff generally.
For the avoidance of doubt, this request includes but is not limited to SMS (incl. Meta Messenger, WhatsApp & Telegram), emails, notes and / or phone calls.
Yours faithfully,
Cody C
From: Official Information
Christchurch City Council
Kia ora Cody
This request is likely to be deemed too large and either refused under LGOIMA s17(f) - this information cannot be provided without substantial collation, or alternatively, undertaken at a cost to you (charging information can be found here: https://ccc.govt.nz/the-council/plans-st...).
As such, are you able to refine your request?
Kind regards
Ella
Ella Sullivan
Official Information Advisor
Office of the Mayor and Chief Executive
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From: Cody C
Dear Ella,
You confirmed to me this morning that this information is collected by the Elected Members, not by Council (https://fyi.org.nz/request/26245-ediscov...). Accordingly, Council would incur little to no direct costs in fulfilling this request.
Elected Member should be able to easily refuse any part of the request, if the information does not exist or would require substantial collation.
However, in my original request I gave reference to comments made by Cr. Moore made at the last CB meeting on 14 March 2024. This was just under two weeks ago and I would be surprised if substantial collation would be required in that case (as an example).
Yours sincerely,
Cody C
From: Official Information
Christchurch City Council
Hi Cody
My apologies for not being specific. The issue is that the timeframe you provided will likely be too large (i.e. from the start of the term until the date of the request).
Substantial collation includes not only compiling the information and prepping it for release, but also the time it would take to seek out the information in the first place. Checking emails for a duration of 17 months would take a substantial amount of time.
Regarding your first comment, as the Elected Members are a part of Council their time working on this would be classed as a part of their Council work. Therefore the fees to Council would apply (if necessary).
If you can narrow the scope of your request then we can consider it further.
Kind regards
Ella
Ella Sullivan
Official Information Advisor
Office of the Mayor and Chief Executive
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Cody C left an annotation ()
I might agree; however, a CB member referenced emails not publicly displayed but discussed during the public part of the meeting, so they should be released.
From: Cody C
Dear Ella,
1) Please clarify for me which part(s) of the request requires substantial collation or research by Council staff (not Elected Members).
RE: Part A & B of the original request.
2) I'm not quite following you here. Are you saying that there isn't a way that complaints are recorded that would not require substantial collation? You should be able to filter by that as a Category in Hybris, at minimum.
3) Please refer to Ombudsman's advice (https://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/site...), page 8 "Difficulties due to an agency’s own administrative failings".
RE: Part C of the original request
4) You linked to https://ccc.govt.nz/the-council/plans-st....
5) This is given legal effect by the Annual Plan (page 194, "City Council Fees & Charges for 2023/24").
6) The prescribed fee you refer to is for "Staff time recovery" only.
7) Elected Members are not staff of, or employed by, Council.
8) Therefore there is no prescribed fee and per s150(4) of the Local Government Act which states that "The fees prescribed under subsection (1) must not provide for the local authority to recover more than the reasonable costs incurred by the local authority for the matter for which the fee is charged.".
I am now expecting you to fulfill this request in acordance within the requirements of the LGA.
Yours sincerely,
Cody C
From: Official Information
Christchurch City Council
Kia ora Cody
Council can charge for the collation of information and the time spent by staff analysing this information to ready it for release.
The issue we have is the timeframe of your request. If you are able to limit the time frame to, for example, 6 months, this will likely be more practical for staff. We are not wanting to charge you for this request, but to work with you to make it more practical.
Regards
Ella
Ella Sullivan
Official Information Advisor
Office of the Mayor and Chief Executive
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From: Cody C
Dear Ella,
Happy Monday! I am aware that HHR CB member(s) sent emails Friday evening discussing exactly the matters I have requested above.
The contents of those emails were disclosed electronically by a CB member in screenshot form. Considering that this is the process that elected members use to provide disclosure for LGOIMA requests, please advise if you are already fulfilling any similar requests to this one and, if so, please also supply the same information disclosed in that request.
Yours sincerely,
Cody C
From: Official Information
Christchurch City Council
Hi Cody
Yes we are currently working on a request of this nature but with the timeframe of 6 months. I can provide you the same response when it is ready.
After receiving that response you can let us know if you require any further information.
Kind regards
Ella
Ella Sullivan
Official Information Advisor
Office of the Mayor and Chief Executive
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From: Cody C
Dear Ella,
Okay. I am happy to refine this request to the first six months of this term.
Yours sincerely,
Cody C
From: Official Information
Christchurch City Council
Hi Cody
My apologies, I was not clear. The response we are currently working on is for the last 6 months (1 September 2023 until March 2024). Is this still what you are after?
Kind regards
Ella
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From: Official Information
Christchurch City Council
Hi Cody
Ok just so we are both 100% clear, your request has now been refined to the following:
Within the timeframe of 8 October 2022 to 8 March 2023, provide any correspondence between elected members of the Halswell Hornby Riccarton Community Board (HHR) that expresses dissatisfaction about other board members, the chair and/or the deputy chair; and
Complaints made by HHR elected members about Council staff; and
Complaints made by HHR elected members about HHR governance staff.
Is that correct?
Kind regards
Ella
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From: Official Information
Christchurch City Council
Kia ora Cody
Thank you for your refinement and confirmation.
I will now work with staff to pull this information together. We will provide a decision on your request within 20 working days of 3 April (the date you confirmed your refinement).
Kind regards
Ella
Ella Sullivan
Official Information Advisor
Office of the Mayor and Chief Executive
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Things to do with this request
- Add an annotation (to help the requester or others)
- Download a zip file of all correspondence
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R S Grant left an annotation ()
I would suggest you refine your request to just "the emails" referred to by that councillor, see how they respond to that, and take things from there. (I expect they will refuse on free and frank opinion grounds, but you never know.)
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