A list of 32 decisions the Palmerston North City Council has made in private in the past year has been released.
Mayor Grant Smith called for the register after copping criticism for the secrecy surrounding the council making a $391,000 grant to Toyota New Zealand in 2017.
In a stocktake of business the council has considered behind closed doors, to be presented to councillors on Monday, nine items are identified as still confidential.
Six have been fully released, while for the balance, decisions have been made public, but some of the supporting information was withheld.
Cr Karen Naylor, who will put a notice of motion to Monday's council meeting calling for a more comprehensive review of the release of confidential decisions, described the list as a good start.
She said the main element missing at the moment was an explanation of why certain information was not being released.
Naylor said the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act provided a number of reasons, like protecting personal privacy, for withholding information, and it was important the register cited those grounds.
The council's strategy and planning general manager Sheryl Bryant will tell councillors they could take a more proactive approach to considering when confidential business could be released to the public.
Standard practice at the moment was for the chief executive to make decisions about releasing information, reacting to requests.
Bryant said the partial release of information was sometimes appropriate.
For example, the council would announce appointments made to the boards of its council-controlled organisations, but candidates' personal information could still be kept private.
Another example was when the council was negotiating contracts, which needed to be confidential until the tender was let.
Bryant said staff were looking at how other councils managed the release of once-confidential reports so the public could find them.
Public-excluded business items would be presented in future with a prompt for councillors to consider what, if any, information should be made public, she said.
The business from the past year which remains secret, with agenda headings as provided, includes:
❑ The annual report on trade waste activity
❑ Buying Pproperty to partner with a housing provider
❑ A funding request
❑ The award of a contract for the new artificial turf at Central Energy Trust Arena
❑ The Globe Theatre, recommendation for appointment
❑ Sale of land, request to amend settlement date
❑ Memorandum of understanding – development
❑ Artificial football turf, process for location selection
❑ Massey University hockey turf update.