Falklands : Public Meeting Report (12/13/05)
Submitted by Falkland Islands News Network (Juanita Brock) 15.12.2005 (Article Archived on 29.12.2005)
The public were given a presentation about GPC.
PUBLIC MEETING REPORT
By J. Brock (FINN)
A public meeting was held in the Court and Council Chamber of the Town Hall at 1700 on Tuesday, 13 December 2005. Present were Cllrs. Hansen, Rendell, Stevens, Clausen, Davis, and Robertson. Andrea Clausen acted as chair and Janet Robertson presented a series of power-point slides about General Purposes Committee.
The presentation included an explanation about the benefits and the draw-backs of the committee with some benefits being that it is a forum where Councillors can brief each other about overseas trips, look at confidential EXCO papers and generally debate issues such as proposed legislation. The draw-backs are that it appears to be a secret committee where self-serving plans are hatched. It was also felt that EXCO members could be influenced at General Purposes Committee but the case is they vote any way they want to at EXCO
There had been a vote about changing the name of the Committee or changing what the committee did but it was decided to keep it as it is because there is no other place where Councillors can look and discuss classified documents such as EXCO papers as well as policy.
There were suggestions that there was too much debate at GPC and some of it needed to be reserved for Legislative Council.
Andrea Clausen wanted to know what the man on the street felt about it. There were complaints from those attending that committee papers and agendas weren’t on the web but Lynn Brownlee sends them via e-mail to anyone who asks. It was thought that more flexibility should be exercised as far as what information was given to the public from GPC. There would be a monthly report given to the media about what went on at GPC.
Stephen Luxton brought up the fact that the Computer Section are working on an external website.
This was followed by a brief discussion about access to information, with Sarah Davis mentioning that there needs to be a better system of deciding what should be made public and what should remain excluded. Apparently each department has their own standards as far as the release of information to the public.
The conversation began to fall off to dental care and putting fluoride in the water. Some members of the public had said children were given tablets and had been over exposed to the chemical. Putting fluoride in the water would solve the problem. Some members of the public said that it was better for the children to have regular check-ups and to brush their teeth regularly.
There was a pervading argument in town that it would not be politically correct to take sweets and fizzy drinks from the children. Someone commented that we should also sell them cigarettes if that was the case.
Getting back on the subject, Barry Elsby said that there seemed to be no law about freedom of information and it was pointed out that there was.
Barry Elsby said it was good practice, for example, to show patients the doctors’ notes when they asked for them. He would be around to explain anything. Cllr Rendell said that sometimes doctors were not kind in what they wrote in some notes and it might end up hurting people’s feelings, or worse. He used that to say that there must be a transition between the time notes are released to the public and the actual release date of the info.
The meeting ended promptly at 1800.
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