A BALLARAT councillor repeatedly voiced concerns to The City's chief executive about the transparency of the council's decision making process surrounding the Civic Hall.
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In a series of emails obtained by The Courier under Freedom of Information Laws councillor Belinda Coates questions chief executive Anthony Schinck outlining that she did not believe the process undertaken by councillors would "stand up to external scrutiny."
In her emails, Cr Coates repeatedly questioned the transparency of councillor discussions focusing on the hall and outlined The City's lack of regard for past community engagement and public consultation.
She also said she did not believe councillors had all the information available to make an informed decision of the matter.
Cr Coates first flagged her concerns to Mr Schinck in an email on August 21 last year.
"For the record, I am increasingly concerned about the transparency of these councillor discussion process from a governance point of view," Cr Coates wrote.
"I'm concerned about the lack of regard for the available information and lack of regard for the past community consultation period. Also the disregard of every process to date."
Cr Coates added in her email that "a key aspect of good decision making is that every decision should be able to be explained."
She said it defied logic and went against the principals of the council plan to ignore community input and heritage issues.
The Courier can today provide further insight into the Civic Hall decision-making process after a 10-month battle to secure the documents.
The Courier first requested, in January this year, emails to and from councillors and senior officers pertaining to Civic Hall decision making in the period between July and October 2013.
After the City of Ballarat's Chief Information Officer Annie De Jong later that month (January) asked The Courier amend its request, the matter was then further escalated to CEO Anthony Schinck.
The Courier received notification from Mr Schinck on March 28 that while hundreds of pages of documents would be provided, dozens of emails pertaining to the Civic Hall process would not - mostly on the basis that providing them would be contrary to the public interest.
The Courier formally applied to VCAT for a review of Mr Schinck's decision and a directions hearing was held on June 16.
Upon agreement between the two parties, the majority of emails previously not provided were released to The Courier to avoid a formal VCAT hearing in August.
The documents were provided to The Courier late in September.
The emails from August 21 until September 18 last year, were exchanged prior to a marathon six hour meeting where the majority of councillors voted to demolish the Civic Hall on September 25 and before Cr Coates sensationally moved a motion to overturn the planned $2 million Civic Hall demolition on September 29.
Days before the September 25 meeting, Cr Coates again highlighted to Mr Schinck that councillors did not have all the information they needed to make an objective decision.
She criticised "a table of risks" that had been handed to councillors from council officers which she said did not adequately outline heritage risks associated with the demolition of the hall.
Cr Coates said she had "no confidence" in the information provided by Mr Schinck to the councillors.
"There is a selective bias in how this table is presented to councillors....I consider that it taints the process of being able to make a balanced decision," Cr Coates wrote. "Why are heritage related issues not identified as risks? Clearly the Ballarat historic city reputation is at risk if the COB ignore the advice of its own Heritage Advisory Committee yet holds residents and developer to account on heritage issues."
Cr Coates told The Courier this week she stood by her emails.
"Councillors should be really seeking that any decisions made go through a proper process and are transparent so you can explain exactly how and why you have made a decision," Cr Coates said.
"I felt I needed to be confident that balanced information was being provided to all of the councillors around what had happened to date. There was a sense from me, that some of the councillors perhaps weren't taking full account of all the information . . . whether it be the heritage, the community engagement or even the risks associated with the hall."
Mr Schinck defended the council's decision making process in the lead up to the September 25 meeting.
He said a series of internal and extensive workshops had been conducted by The City to inform councillors of the large volume of information and public consultation that had been received on the matter, prior to the election of the current councillors.
"This process was completely sound, " Mr Schinck said. "It included proper facilitated workshops, access to experts and any information councillors required in the lead up to casting their votes. It was conducted so councillors had all the information they needed to make an informed decision."
Mr Schick said it was his understanding that the concerns of Cr Coates were around the issue that the workshops were conducted internally, without the public's prior knowledge.
However, Mr Schinck said a report presented at the meeting held on the Civic Hall on September 25, ensured all the information that had been discussed in those workshops was brought to the public's attention.