Dear Palmerston North City Council,

I am requesting the date, list of attendees, meeting minutes, personal recollections if no minutes are available, decisions taken, and any other correspondence related to the meeting referred to in the email from Jeff Baker on 10th November 2025 reproduced below.

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From: Jeff Baker <[email address]>
Sent: Monday, 10 November 2025 8:24 am
To: Kate Carter <[email address]>
Subject: 2 Te Pirangi Way - Trees replaement as per Consent Notice (item H)

Hi Kate

Further to our meeting - while we should have been approached before the small area of trees were removed - taking a practical position I am comfortable with what has been proposed planted (a fast growing hedge) is OK in that location. So for the purposes of Item H I hearby give my approval.

Cheers
Jeff
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Yours faithfully,

Rob Elshire

Dear LGOIMA Requests,

I am writing to note the inadequacy of the response and request that PNCC respond again following the Office of the Ombudsman document "Information not held A guide to sections 18(e) and (g) of the OIA and sections 17(e) and (g) of the LGOIMA" found at: https://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/reso...

In my initial request, I requested several pieces of information related to the meeting referred to in the email from Jeff Baker on 10th November 2025 :
1) date,
2) list of attendees,
3) meeting minutes,
4) personal recollections if no minutes are available,
5) decisions taken, and
6) any other correspondence related to the meeting

Your response only addressed items 3) and 6) above in this way: "Our Manager Planning Services advises that no minutes or other correspondence from the meeting were recorded. Accordingly, pursuant to section 17(e) of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987 (LGOIMA), your request is refused as the information sought does not exist."

It did not address items 1), 2,) 4), or 5) at all. Please address those in your response to this message.

In my initial request, I included personal recollections if no minutes are available hoping to prompt PNCC to follow the Office of the Ombudsman's Information Not Held Guide (link above) Pages 9 and 10 copied between the ******* below for your convenience.

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Information held by employees

As noted above, agencies are deemed to hold information held by their officers, employees, or
members in their official capacity.25 This applies to current officers, employees or members,
not former ones.

This includes:

 Information held in the minds of employees that has not yet been reduced to writing.
Such information must be known to the individual (meaning it is clear, certain or
established), and able to be recalled. Obviously, the more recent the information, the
more likely it can be recalled. On request, any unrecorded information should be
reduced to writing and released, unless there is a good reason for withholding. Reducing
unrecorded information to writing does not amount to the creation of new information.
Rather, it is the provision of existing information in a different form.

 Information held on employees’ personal devices or email accounts, if it was generated,
communicated, received or otherwise held in their official capacity. As the Ombudsman
has noted (see case 439322), ‘the use of private email accounts or personal devices does
not override the application of [the official information legislation]’.

It does not include:
 Information that an officer, employee or member would not hold but for their
membership of, or connection with, another body not subject to the OIA, except where
that membership or connection is in their capacity as an officer, employee or member of
the agency.26

 Information that is only known in an employee’s private capacity (see cases 343825,
178230 and A12997).

Note that information can become ‘official information’ if it is used by an employee in their
official capacity. In determining whether information is held by an employee in their official
capacity, agencies should consider:

 the nature and content of the information;
 the context in which it came to be held;
 the role and functions of the employee;
 how the information relates to that role and function;
 any use to which the information has been put by the employee
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Yours sincerely,

Rob Elshire

Dear LGOIMA Requests,

Apologies for the additional message.

To be completely clear, my previous message is *not a new request*. It meant to address an inadequate (and late) response to my request. I am hoping that this can be made right by PNCC very, very quickly.

Yours sincerely,

Rob Elshire