By Jeremy Cook
Council information sessions previously made available for Southern Downs residents to attend have been shut behind closed doors for five months with no clear reopening date in sight.
The sessions had been held monthly under previous Southern Downs Regional Council administrations for members of the public to attend and engage directly with elected officials and staff.
However no public sessions have been held since local government elections in March.
The sudden shift to closed doors sessions mirrors practices of nearby local governments in Goondiwindi, the Scenic Rim, Western Downs and Ipswich which all hold similar sessions but have clear policies which restrict them from being opened to the public.
Southern Downs Mayor Melissa Hamilton said briefing sessions and workshops held since the election could be grouped into four categories. These included councillor training sessions, strategic planning workshops, briefing sessions and information sessions.
Cr Hamilton said no debate, decision-making, or voting took place in any of these sessions.
“Training sessions, strategic planning workshops and briefing sessions have traditionally not been open to the public,” she said.
“This practice is consistent with previous councils and neighbouring councils.
“Councillors are encouraged, but not required, to attend, and often, some councillors do not attend these sessions.”
In June, Cr Hamilton told Warwick Stanthorpe Today that information sessions for the first three months of council almost exclusively related to “councillor induction, training and briefings on major issues and the development of the 2024/25 budget”.
“Council will revert to the usual council information sessions from July with agendas published on the website and the sessions being open to the public and press, with the exception of confidential items of business – which has always been the case,” she said.
Despite asking all councillors for when the sessions will reopen to the public in August, Warwick Stanthorpe Today received no clear answer. But Cr Hamilton said “as more community engagement occurs and projects commence, we anticipate that these sessions will be held publicly or within council meetings”.
“For example, the update on the community engagement at Leyburn regarding drainage was delivered in an open council meeting,” she said.
Cr Hamilton said she hoped to progress a clear policy which explained what the sessions do.
“Most councils do not open their briefing and workshop sessions to the public,” she said.
“However, they do have a clear policy to explain what these sessions do and do not do, and I think it would be beneficial for our council to have a policy on this issue.
“This is something we will progress in the short term.”
Deputy Mayor Sheryl Windle, who has served on the council since 2016, said past information sessions gave residents an opportunity to talk directly with council representatives for only a couple hours at the start.
“Once that was completed, the meeting was closed to the public to enable council to continue with council-related business as per any other information session,” Cr Windle said.
“Some of these open sessions were well attended, and others not,” she said.
“Some people voiced that they would have preferred those sessions to be held after work hours as they were during the 2016 to 2020 term when ‘Cuppas with the Councillors’ were held in various locations throughout the region.”
Cr Windle said “Cuppas with the Councillors” allowed residents to chat informally with elected officials and staff “to raise any issues they may have had”. She said the previous council held some of its information sessions in small towns and villages.
Newly-elected Councillor Russell Wantling said he backed having “a completely open and transparent” council.
“I went into the current council knowing that our region had open information sessions to both the media and the public,” Cr Wantling said.
“I did not expect that to change.”
Cr Wantling said he believed councillors were obliged to build trust with the community.
“My personal belief is that for the public to truly trust their elected councillors, we should embrace media and public attendance in our information sessions,” he said.
“I do understand that there are definitely times when topics that are of a confidential nature will occur and we will have no option than to close the doors.
“But outside of those times, I personally believe we have an obligation to keep the lines of communication with our residents open and transparent; to keep building trust within our community and prevent miscommunication or mixed messaging from occurring.
“What I say behind closed doors is exactly the same message I put in front of our live streamed meetings and also out in public.”
Warwick Stanthorpe Today asked Cr Hamilton and all councillors whether they felt the council had become more transparent since election time.
“As I flagged in our budget meeting, my first measure which will be brought before council is around greater transparency on the use of contractors and consultants by council,” Cr Hamilton said.
“I will propose regular and transparent reporting that includes the costs payable by council, the reasons for the appointment, a clear description of work undertaken, and the benefits derived.”
Newly-elected Councillor Joel Richters said he had initiated a change so that answers to questions taken on notice in council meetings can be included in the agenda of the following meeting.
“This ensures that the community has all the answers that have come from our statutory meetings,” Cr Richters said.
The most recent information session was held during elections on 6 March and included one public agenda item before it closed to the public.
Following enquiries from this masthead, public agendas from sessions held in early-2024 have since disappeared from the Southern Downs Regional Council website. As of midday 13 August, a council information sessions link had also been removed from the website’s “Council Meetings” section.
Agendas from previous years could still be accessed if searched for in the search bar. The council were contacted for comment on the sudden changes but were unable to respond by deadline.
