FREMANTLE mayoral candidate Marija Vujcic wants two council meetings a month so there’s less discussion behind closed doors.

Cr Vujcic, who at a recent candidate forum revealed she also wanted to reduce the number of councillors to save the city money, said they were receiving information in briefings that shouldn’t be kept from the public.

“We get a lot, and there are already tacit positions before it goes to full council. It’s a very low level of transparency.”

To compensate for the additional meeting, Cr Vujcic wants councillors to spend less time debating planning policy, saying there were laws already in place.

“We have elevated policy to sit over our planning laws,” she said.

Cr Vujcic regularly refuses to accept the council’s minutes because they only record the motions and amendments, not the discussion leading up to them, which she doesn’t consider an accurate account of a meeting.

She says a simple way around the issue would be for the council to livestream its meetings – as many of its neighbours have adopted – but says she keeps getting told it’s too difficult to organise in the temporary meeting space at the North Fremantle Community Hall.

by STEVE GRANT