Mayor and Councillor attendance this term

aimee w made this Official Information request to Christchurch City Council

The request was partially successful.

From: aimee w

Dear Christchurch City Council,

Could you please provide, in table form (.csv or .xls or .xlsx), a detailed breakdown for the mayor and all councillors, per meeting, of:
- councillors in attendance
- apologies
- late arrivals (and what constitutes that), and
- early departures (and what constitutes that) for all council meetings for the 2013 triennium, to date?

Further, could that table contain data on which meetings were considered mandatory for councillors, and which were considered optional?

For context, I'm looking to reproduce the analysis in the blog post below: https://medium.com/quicksand/how-many-me...

Thanks so much!

Yours faithfully,

aimee w

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From: CCC_ CustomerServices
Christchurch City Council

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Christchurch City Council
Civic Offices, 53 Hereford Street, Christchurch
PO Box 73012, Christchurch, 8154
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From: CCC_ CustomerServices
Christchurch City Council

Dear Aimee
 
Thank you for your enquiry.

Your query has been forwarded to the Official Information Team who will contact you regarding this matter.

You can expect to receive a reply within the next 20 working days.
 
If you have any further queries, please reply to this email or call our Customer Services Team on 941 8999.
 
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Wendy
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Customer Services Unit
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03 941 8999
Email
[CCC request email]
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Christchurch City Council
Civic Offices, 53 Hereford Street, Christchurch
PO Box 73012, Christchurch, 8154
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From: Official Information
Christchurch City Council

Dear Aimee,

 

Thank you for your email.

 

We are handling your request under the Local Government Official
Information and Meetings Act 1987 (LGOIMA). Your request has been
forwarded to the appropriate CCC teams, and we will provide a response or
update within 20 working days of the date we received your request.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Anna Sinclair
Public Information Adviser
Office of the Chief Executive

Christchurch City Council
53 Hereford Street, Christchurch 8011
PO Box 73016, Christchurch 8154

 

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From: Official Information
Christchurch City Council

Dear Aimee,

 

Thank you for your email, received on 5 July 2016. You requested the
following information, under the Local Government Official Information and
Meetings Act 1987 (LGOIMA):

 

“Could you please provide, in table form (.csv or .xls or .xlsx), a
detailed breakdown for the mayor and all councillors, per meeting, of:

- councillors in attendance

- apologies

- late arrivals (and what constitutes that), and

- early departures (and what constitutes that) for all council meetings
for the 2013 triennium, to date?

 

Further, could that table contain data on which meetings were considered
mandatory for councillors, and which were considered optional?”

 

Response

The Council is in the process of getting the attendance records of elected
members for the current term uploaded onto the Council website.
Accordingly, we have decided to refuse your request under section 17(d) of
the LGOIMA – the information requested is or will soon be publicly
available. We can send you the link to the attendance records once they
are uploaded, if you would like.

 

Apologies

The records to be uploaded note the absence of elected members from
meetings, but do not record apologies. These records also do not note late
arrivals or early departures. Apologies, late arrivals and early
departures are all recorded in the minutes of each meeting. These minutes
are publicly available at: [1]http://christchurch.infocouncil.biz/.

 

Late arrivals and early departures

Regarding what constitutes late arrivals/early departures, a late arrival
would be when anyone is not present for the start of the meeting. An early
departure would be when anyone is not present for the end of the meeting.
The relevant Standing Order is as follows:

3.6.3

Recording of apologies: The chairperson of each meeting must invite
apologies at the beginning of each meeting, including apologies for
lateness and early departure, and these and subsequent apologies during
the meeting shall be recorded in the minutes, including whether they were
accepted or declined, and the time of arrival and departure of all
members.

 

Mandatory/optional meetings

Regarding mandatory/optional meetings, we would not consider any meeting
“mandatory” as Council officers are not in a position to force Councillors
to attend any meeting. We would consider there is an obligation for
Councillors to attend official, public meetings such as Council, Committee
and (their relevant) Community Board meetings as part of their civic
duties. A “meeting” is defined in Standing Orders below. If the Standing
Orders are adopted by a Community Board (as they have been at Christchurch
City Council), then this would also apply to Community Boards. We would
therefore consider meetings that fall within the definition below to be
significant meetings to attend.

Meeting means any first, ordinary, or extraordinary meeting of a local
authority; and any meeting of any committee, standing committee, joint
committee, special committee or subcommittee of the local authority. At
any meeting of a local authority, or of any committee or subcommittee of a
local authority, at which no resolutions or decisions are made, the
provisions of these standing orders regarding public access and
notification need not apply.

 

You have the right to request the Ombudsman to review this decision.
Complaints can be sent by email to [2][email address], by fax
to (04) 471 2254, or by post to The Ombudsman, PO Box 10152, Wellington
6143.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

Anna Sinclair
Public Information Adviser
Office of the Chief Executive

Christchurch City Council
53 Hereford Street, Christchurch 8011
PO Box 73016, Christchurch 8154

 

From: Official Information
Sent: Wednesday, 6 July 2016 4:09 p.m.
To: '[FOI #4223 email]'
Subject: LGOIMA 16/0234 acknowledgement - Aimee W - Mayor and Councillor
attendance this term

 

Dear Aimee,

 

Thank you for your email.

 

We are handling your request under the Local Government Official
Information and Meetings Act 1987 (LGOIMA). Your request has been
forwarded to the appropriate CCC teams, and we will provide a response or
update within 20 working days of the date we received your request.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Anna Sinclair
Public Information Adviser
Office of the Chief Executive

Christchurch City Council
53 Hereford Street, Christchurch 8011
PO Box 73016, Christchurch 8154

 

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From: aimee w

Dear Official Information,

If you could please send me a link when the information is available, or even better, post it here so that others can see it, I'd be most appreciative.

Yours sincerely,

aimee w

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From: Official Information
Christchurch City Council

Hi Aimee,

Here is the link to the attendance records for Council, Committees and Community Boards, which are now online: http://www.ccc.govt.nz/the-council/meeti....

Kind regards,
Anna

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From: aimee w

Hi Anna,

Happy New Year! Also, that link appears to be broken? It's throwing a 404...

Yours sincerely,
aimee w

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From: Official Information
Christchurch City Council

Please note that the Official Information inbox will not be monitored between 24 December - 10 January.

Any requests or questions regarding LGOIMA will not be acknowledged until 10 January.

Staff will respond to any queries on their return on 10 January.

Seasons Greetings.
Official Information Team

**********************************************************************
This electronic email and any files transmitted with it are intended
solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed.

The views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender
and may not necessarily reflect the views of the Christchurch City Council.

If you are not the correct recipient of this email please advise the
sender and delete.

Christchurch City Council
http://www.ccc.govt.nz
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From: Official Information
Christchurch City Council

Hi Aimee,

Thank you for bringing the broken link to our attention. We have got the page back up now, so you should be able to find the attendance records online again using this link.

Kind regards,
Anna

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From: aimee w

Hi Anna

Thanks so much - great to see it :)

Yours sincerely,

aimee w

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