Maribyrnong council has responded in time to only three of 20 inquiries from Star Weekly this year.
The other 17 requests for information on behalf of ratepayers have been ignored, refused or returned after Star Weekly’s publication deadline.
The most recent inquiry replied to in time was on March 23, almost three months ago.
On seven occasions, the council failed or refused to provide any information, leaving more than a third of Star Weekly’s questions unanswered.
These included requests for details on major residential developments, the chopping down of prominent trees and whether the council was the owner of property in Seddon acquired for the Regional Rail Link.
Recent queries on the cost of councillor mediation and the number of dangerous or restricted-breed dogs have also been met with a refusal to respond, the latter case taking eight days to return a refusal.
Maribyrnong council’s 2015-16 budget has allocated more than $2.4 million for “strategic marketing, communications and advocacy”.
Of this, $809,480 is for media and communications, with a stated focus on increasing use of social media and online communication.
“The remit of the communications, marketing and media team includes social media and online services as an area of growing emphasis for council,” the budget papers state.
“It includes both corporate communications about the Maribyrnong City Council and general marketing of the city as a great place to live, visit, work or study.”
Star Weekly provided the council with its analysis last week, along with a list of questions on the process for providing responses to media inquiries.
It also asked about council responsibility in responding to media inquiries on matters of public interest.
Despite assurances that a response was being prepared, Maribyrnong council did not respond in time and was unable to indicate when a response would be given.
