Staff at Central Coast Council have been unable to watch the “not-so” Public Inquiry into the circumstances of its financial crisis.
An email from CEO, David Farmer, suggested they were free to watch the live streamed hearings after hours.
He said he had no doubt staff would be interested, given it was about their organisation but they were not allowed to watch at work.
“With the hearings being held virtually and recordings available, staff who choose to do so may follow the hearings in their own personal time outside their working hours,” he said.
Farmer did not acknowledge that staff could not watch outside working hours because the live stream of testimonies from witnesses was removed from YouTube almost immediately after the last speaker finished each day.
The Office of the Commissioner said the Commissioner, Roslyn McCulloch, decided to hold the public hearings online primarily due to the ongoing COVID-19 restrictions.
“She also determined that in order to limit reproduction, the live stream of the hearings would be available to view only while the proceedings were in progress.
“This is consistent with the degree of public access which would be available had the hearings been held in person.
“The published transcripts are the enduring record of the proceedings.”
Transcripts sometimes take more than 16 hours to appear on the Commissioner’s page on the Office of Local Government website.
The October 18 transcript was not public until 9am on October 19 despite the hearings finishing mid-afternoon the day before.
The hearings staff interrupted the Commissioner at one point on October 18 saying they had not been able to hear about seven minutes of evidence.
The Commissioner asked if they would be able to pick up the words from the audio and the team agreed they would be able to, so the hearing continued.
Merilyn Vale