Cr Andrew Simms objected to council by-election candidate Aaron Hawkins characterising a budget working group of senior staff and a few councillors as a kind of clandestine group.
It had been dubbed the mayor’s ‘‘secret budget committee’’ by Mr Hawkins and Cr Simms said this was ‘‘as mischievous as it is ignorant’’.
‘‘The council budgets will be thrashed out in public with lengthy public consultation when the time comes,’’ Cr Simms said.
‘‘No decisions are possible ahead of this process, and all decisions will be made in public by the full council once the debate has concluded.
‘‘Perhaps Mr Hawkins should wait until he is elected to council before commencing work to undermine the mayor.’’
In December last year, the council included a ‘‘budget update process report’’ in the public-excluded part of a meeting agenda.
A group comprising Mayor Sophie Barker, deputy mayor Cherry Lucas, Cr Simms and Crs John Chambers and Lee Vandervis was set up to review draft annual plan budgets and present options to the full council.
On March 2, the council held a non-public workshop and Ms Barker disclosed that week 30 items had been discussed there confidentially.
Cr Vandervis described the list as potentially significant cost savings.
The council failed to update its website to say the workshop was on.
Mr Hawkins, a former mayor and councillor, yesterday called for the 30 proposals to be made public.
The Office of the Auditor-general was clear in its advice council workshops should be held in public by default, he said.
‘‘It’s one of the best developments in terms of transparency that we’ve seen in recent times.
‘‘There’s nothing about this instance that suggests it should be an exception,’’ he said.
Other by-election candidates weighed in yesterday.
Jo Galer said she believed Mr Hawkins wanted to preserve what she described as a culture of high spending at the council.
He was ‘‘part of the ideological group that pushed up costs that got us to where we are now’’, she said.
Andrew Whiley said calls from Mr Hawkins for greater openness and engagement were ‘‘somewhat surprising’’.
‘‘Before the end of the last council term, it was widely understood that the new council would undertake a series of workshops to brief both current and incoming councillors, particularly around council finances,’’ Mr Whiley said.
‘‘That’s a normal part of local government.
‘‘Working groups reporting back to the full council with staff present is entirely appropriate.’’
Carmen Houlahan said she agreed with Cr Simms.
Bill Acklin said political drama played out through the media was ‘‘not what people expect from council representatives, or those aspiring to be’’.
‘‘The community deserves representatives who focus on the business of council, rather than political point-scoring.’’
Conrad Stedman said the council needed to work hard to control costs while ‘‘being open about how those decisions are made’’.
