Despite Newcastle City Council copping criticism for not being transparent, Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes sees transparency as the cornerstone of any council.
In a bid to restore any lost confidence in civic governance, the Lord Mayor beside her fellow Labor team and the Greens will present an Open and Transparent Governance Strategy at next week's council meeting.
The strategy will see the diaries of the Lord Mayor, Chief Executive and senior managers published in the same way NSW ministerial diaries are published, so the public can see just what the council gets up to. They also plan to create a stand alone communications and engagement unit at council to improve the options for citizen involvement.
Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes believes transparency is pivotal to a successful council.
"An open and transparent governance strategy for the internal operations of council is something that we have been working with the greens on - Labor and Greens together - to make sure that more of the operations of council are acceptable to the public which I think is the right thing to do and great for the city moving forward."
Nuatali Nelmes says the strategy will go on public display so everyone can have their say.
"Everyone will have a chance to have their say in Newcastle on whether or not they would like to add additional measures into that strategy or just comment either way on how they feel about it."
