Community board not heard at meetings

The calls of people who attend a community board's meetings are going unheard.

Linwood Ward city councillor Yani Johanson said there are no microphones at the Linwood-Central-Heathcote Community Board meeting room, in spite of his regular requests over more than 15 years to have them installed.

Cr Johanson said some members of the public who had spoken at board meetings found it so hard to hear, they had stopped attending to give their input.

“People that used to go to our boardroom and attend the meetings on a regular basis have said to me that they don’t go anymore because they can’t hear.

“They cannot follow what’s going on, they cannot understand what’s being said.”

He said there was recently a board hearing that had to be adjourned and delayed until a portable microphone was brought in.

Cr Johanson said the fact that the board is still waiting for microphones to be installed after years of asking for them is unfair.

“We’ve had every excuse under the sun about why council staff won’t support it. I think what makes me more angry is A: the fact that it’s taken so long but B: that other boardrooms who have less of an issue have got them ahead of ours. I think it’s inherently unfair.”

City council head of community support, governance and partnerships John Filsell said microphones and audio improvements for the boardroom would cost $35,000 but funds are not currently available.

Said Mr Filsell: “Technology improvements are part of the Long Term Plan and Annual Plan process and use the organisational prioritisation framework to prioritise investment decisions. Linwood is one of five boardrooms yet to receive a technology refresh, and demand from the organisation is always greater than the available funding,” he said.

But Cr Johanson disputed the idea that the city council could not afford microphones for the boardroom.

“They put in a new audio-visual system into the council, council got new microphones, they went through two sets of microphones and our board still doesn’t have any. So to say that it’s a budget issue is just a nonsense in my view.”

Mr Filsell said “Linwood Central-Heathcote Community boardroom is on the list of remaining boardrooms for prioritisation and the feedback from the community board will feed into the prioritisation. The technology refresh will be prioritised as funds become available.”

Said Cr Johanson: “It shouldn’t be a political decision about whether or not someone should be able to hear when they go to a local community board, it should be part of the democratic process.”