New City governance boss Brooke Patterson vow for transparency after sewer leak backlash

The aftermath of the giant sewage spill will see private council meetings coming out of the closet, vows a senior Gold Coast councillor.

Gold Coast council’s governance chair Brooke Patterson vows to open committee meetings – including financial discussions at the closed Audit and Risk committee – after community backlash.

Community Alliance president John Hicks had called on council to be “straight with and accountable” to residents, after a gigantic sewage spill in the Albert River.

As community leaders attended the most recent full Gold Coast City Council meeting, Mr Hicks said a key request was for “greatly improved transparency in governance, with less closed council meeting sessions”.

Environmental leaders led by Sally Spain (second from the right) outside the Gold Coast City Council discussing the Albert River sewerage leak.

The Alliance was also concerned about councillors after a secret briefing late last year voting on whether to pursue an investment share in the Gold Coast Airport. They say council’s potential management of the terminal will lead to a conflict of interest on issues like the night curfew.

Cr Patterson, who has taken over the governance chair from retiring councillor William Owen-Jones along with a position on council’s Audit and Risk committee, has offered to meet with Mr Hicks and improve the meeting process for more transparency on decisions.

“I absolutely 100 per cent agree with John on greater transparency,” she said.

“It is one of the reasons why I came into council. It is certainly something I want to stamp as chair of governance, to open it up and make it more accessible.

“With closed meetings we have a limitation which is put on us. I’m pretty clear in the last term there wasn’t one time we went into closed where we weren’t legally obliged to.”

Councillor Brooke Patterson wants less closed meetings and supports call by residents for transparency. Picture Glenn Hampson.

Cr Patterson believes council can work better to provide information from closed sessions where “commercial in confidence” matters are debated.

“The difference is working out ‘okay, yes we have to go into closed’ but how do we share everything that we can with the community. And how do we do that in a way that works,” she said. “I was even just having a look at our Queensland Audit Office group that comes to our Audit and Risk committees, even if there is a potential for observers to come and have a look at this.

“I’m looking at this, I’m working on it with the CEO (Tim Baker) and with our head of People Strategy and Performance, Paul Callander, who is also interested in enhancing the reputation in terms of transparency.”

New lifestyle, environment, heritage and resilience chair Glenn Tozer last month moved for the first report on the Albert River spill to be debated in open session.

It was listed for a closed session but went into full open debate after private information about property owners was removed.

Gold Coast community leaders outside the Evandale Chambers at a full council meeting. They were raising issues of closed meetings, City Plan and sewer leak.

“Given community interest and ensure transparency we decided to remove anything from the presentation that might identify individuals so we could open the session,” Cr Tozer said.

Council will address its river testing program after “slightly elevated” levels of bacteria were confirmed in the Albert River during months where a sewage spill went undetected.

Environment officers told councillors in the briefing that the river had remained in relatively good health due to a significant storm water flow during that time.

Sewer spill in the northern Gold Coast at the Albert River. Signage put up by the Gold Coast City Council.

The Bulletin two months ago in an exclusive report revealed at least 364 litres of sewage – close to 145 Olympic swimming pools – had spilt into the river from a pipe leak east of the M1 at Yatala as early as January. Council says it has appointed an independent consultant for its investigation and faces a probe from the Environment Department

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Originally published as New City governance boss Brooke Patterson vow for transparency after sewer leak backlash