Excluding press and public without knowing why

Question

Information about confidential agenda items is only shared in advance with a select few councillors. The information is only shared with all councillors in the meeting once members of press and public are excluded. To be excluded, councillors have to vote to exclude them without knowing why. At a meeting last night I refused to vote to exclude members of press and public because I didn't know what the confidential agenda item was about other than "staffing issues" so didn't know whether it was justified. Is there guidance on this?

Answer 1

If you don't know what you are voting for then the motion as presented is flawed and should be challenged.

Using a 'blanket' exclusion of the press and public is inappropriate just because it is 'staffing issues.'  

Some staffing issues (performance for example) might warrant exclusion but not all (tasking, pay rates, priorities etc.)  You were quite right to challenge the motion if you didn't know what the reason was.

Also, if you end up in a closed session and items that are NOT qualifying subjects for exclusion of the press and public are covered, you should raise a point of order and highlight the impropriety. 

Comments

This was appointment of a candidate to a post and increase in hours for another member of staff so I was happy that it was justified but I didn't know that before the vote.

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Your brief description presents some questions.
If there was more than n1 candidate and the discussion was the selection of 1 from several, then that may well justify closed session.  If there was only 1 candidate and there was a recommendation from a committee it might not have been justified to have a closed session.

Increase in hours is similarly questionable for closed session.  There should be a reason for the uplift, a proposal and a vote - spending public money should be open to public scrutiny.

It might take a little more effort and discipline from chair and Cllrs, but really the closed session should be treated as an absolute exception to the rule rather than the norm.

Other opinions may differ....

Answer 2

"Information about confidential agenda items is only shared in advance with a select few councillors. The information is only shared with all councillors in the meeting once members of press and public are excluded."

1. Why would information be shared in advance with only some councillors ? All councillors attending a meeting are equal; no one is more important so all councillors on the committee should have access to the same information at the same time. 

2. If decisions are to be made surely councillors need 3 clear days notice with the information pack to allow them to consider the issue and come prepared to discuss and vote. 

Answer 3

Councillors are elected to make decisions on behalf of the electorate. To enable them to make any such decisions they must have as much information of any topic that they are asked in council to vote upon. If this information is not supplied then going back to Nolan principles they cannot with integrity vote and must oppose any attempt to force a vote without information being available.