Parks commission must decide on release of minutes
The chairman of a government advisory body, which was disbanded and then re-established more than a year later, has been ordered to decide whether to release its meeting minutes to the public.
Information Commissioner Gitanjali Gutierrez gave Zane DeSilva, the chairman of the National Parks Commission, a deadline of March 7 to comply with her order.
The construction company owner and government MP was appointed to lead the commission, which advises on Bermuda’s national park system, in April last year.
It had previously been disbanded by Lieutenant-Colonel David Burch, the Minister of Public Works, in December 2022, who said he wanted to take it in a “new direction” and later accused members of acting beyond their authority.
Ms Gutierrez’s decision comes after a request from The Royal Gazette for her to review the commission’s failure to respond to a public access to information request.
The newspaper asked the commission in September for the minutes of all meetings it held in 2022, 2023 and 2024.
There was no response in the statutory six-week time frame, so an internal review was sought from Mr DeSilva, but another six weeks passed without reply.
Ms Gutierrez, in a decision issued this month, which did not name Mr DeSilva, wrote that she invited the commission to make submissions on her review in January but it did not do so.
She added: “It is a matter of fact that the commission did not provide the applicant with an internal review decision within the statutory time frame.
“The Information Commissioner is satisfied that the commission failed to comply with … the Pati Act and now orders the commission to issue an internal review decision.
“The commission also may wish to consider apologising to the applicant.”
The Information Commissioner has stated in a previous decision that meeting minutes are the type of record “public authorities routinely and proactively disclose” and taxpayers are entitled to access them for the “sake of transparency regarding a public authority’s governance”.
Environmentalists welcomed the return of the parks commission last year but questioned why it took so long to reinstate the statutory body, whose role is set out in the Bermuda National Parks Act 1986 and whose main function is to advise the public works minister “on matters affecting the long-term conservation and management” of the island’s parks.
The other commission members are deputy chairwoman Trina Bean, Alize Bailey, Ciaran Keaveny, Colin Campbell, Gary Taylor, Heather Bottelli, James Welch, Myles Darrell, Richard Winchell, Roland Hill, Sergio Lottimore and Tashae Thompson.
The Gazette has asked the commission and the public works ministry for comment.
• To read the Information Commissioner’s decision and ICO press release, see Related Media
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