Abnormal Practices in Palmerston North

The way the meetings of the Palmerston North City Council's Low Income Sub-Committee are recorded and reported on are an ongoing frustration to members.

In both the last two reports to the parent committee there have been mistakes, decisions made not recorded, recommendations passed, not recorded or wrongly recorded. Even the small list of those present was wrong from the last meeting.

That is bad enough, but the matter cannot even be discussed at the Low Income Sub-Committee, I have been told - it is not acceptable.

Why not? Is it acceptable that reports that are acted on are wrong and misleading? Is it acceptable that the records are wrong?

The request for minutes in the normal sense of the word has been made many times, at most of the meetings of the Sub-Committee held this term, by a number of the people consulted in the review of the Sub-Committee which was commissioned by the Council before it was re-established. All have been ignored or declined or brushed aside.

Without minutes coming back to meetings there has been no way to follow issues through. But when the notes from the meeting are wrong, for them to be unable to be corrected at the following meeting is not acceptable. No community organisation would be allowed to operate in such a fashion. The auditors and the members would have a fit.

Ian Ritchie

Member Low Income Sub-Committee

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