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An attempt by Auckland City officers to charge the media and public $76 an hour for official information has been stopped by councillors.
Officers wanted to start charging for requests under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act based on guidelines set by the Ministry of Justice.
Fees would kick in after five free hours of staff time.
But the ruling Citizens & Ratepayers bloc, which has made a concerted effort to be more open and transparent, watered down the proposal at yesterday's finance and strategy committee meeting. Mayor John Banks was not present but also supported the move.
Deputy chairman Aaron Bhatnagar said although requests took the time of two to three staff, that was the price of democracy.
"It's very important we send a signal to the media that we respect their role to garner information for the public," he said.
The committee gave chief executive David Rankin the discretion to waive charges for requests in the interests of openness and accountability, but left him the flexibility to charge for unreasonable and vexatious requests.
This latter power was aimed at people like Penny Bright, who accused the committee in public forum of trying to close down public watchdogs like herself.
An officers' report, signed off by organisation performance general manager Trish Langridge, said the number of official information requests had risen from 167 in 2000-2001 to 277 in 2006-2007.
The report glossed over the rights of the public to obtain information.
It focused on the time and costs involved by two fulltime staff dedicated to requests and managers involvement in compiling responses.
Papers obtained under the act reveal something of officers' thinking about the act.
Inquiries by the Herald last October on the cost of banners with the new council logo led to an internal debate between Trish Langridge, marketing manager Dale Clements and communications manager Mark Fenwick about answering questions and the "dangerous precedent that would set".
Emails show Trish Langridge sympathised with Mr Clements' reluctance to answer questions, but said that would lead to an Official Information Act request and "we will have to".
"I would love nothing better than to decline (Herald) requests," she said in one email. In another email, Mr Clements boasted of using the act "to starve the Herald of the further information they need to appear credible".
In a separate report on a review of the communications and marketing department Mr Fenwick said media inquiries were time consuming and interrupted staff from "the efficiency and effectiveness of proactive work".
