New Adelaide City Council chief executive Clare Mockler orders staff to stop being so secretive

In one of her first moves as Adelaide City Council’s new boss, Clare Mockler has ordered staff to stop being so secretive.

New Adelaide City Council boss Clare Mockler has moved to make the secretive organisation more transparent.

At her first management meeting since starting in the role last week, Ms Mockler ordered senior directors to start releasing more information about items presented to councillors behind closed doors.

The former deputy chief executive and long-serving council employee told a monthly workshop on Tuesday night she had listened to ongoing concerns that too much of the council’s business was being kept confidential.

“I have taken on board consistent council member feedback over the past few years around transparency and confidentiality,” she said.

“The executive has made a very clear agreement and commitment to work with our governance team to make sure as much as possible is considered on the public agenda.”

Newly appointed Adelaide City Council chief executive officer Clare Mockler. Picture: Adelaide City Council

Ms Mockler addressed the workshop after infrastructure director Klinton Devenish took the unprecedented step of telling councillors most of a report to be discussed confidentially would be publicly released with the meeting’s minutes.

Mr Devinish said the report dealt with applications for grant funding for council projects, some of which involved cabinet confidentiality.

“Some details need to be kept in confidence or until such time as an announcement can be made about some of the projects,” he said.

“However, in the interest of transparency, the cover report has been written in a way that enables us to release the sections of the report that we can with the minutes next week.”

Ms Mockler said the commitment to publicly release most of the report was “part way of moving down the process” of improving the council’s transparency.

Clare Mockler during a meeting of the Adelaide City Council meeting. Picture: Brenton Edwards

Ms Mockler said she wanted the council to have more “strategic conversations” in public, rather than behind closed doors. This included the future of the various properties and other assets it owned.

“I have made the commitment, along with the executive, to get us to that point in the future,” she said.

“I’m absolutely trying to get us to the point where we have as much discussion on the public record as possible.

“This is the first step. There is a still long way to go but you have the commitment from me to get us to that point.”

Ms Mockler’s stance was welcomed by Councillor Phillip Martin, who frequently has opposed the council voting to move into confidentiality.

“This is good news,” he told the workshop.

The amount of business conducted by the council behind closed doors regularly has featured in The Advertiser’s Your Right To Know campaign against secrecy across all levels of government.