Marion Council's Development Assessment Panel should throw its doors open and be more transparent, a councillor says Marion Councillor Jason Veliskou wants to see planning decisions at the council's Development Assessment Panel made public. MARION Council's development panel should throw open its doors in the interests of transparency, a Marion councillor says. Cr Jason Veliskou has reignited the debate on whether the Development Assessment Panel's (DAP) deliberations should remain behind closed doors. "I want the council to write to the minister (John Rau) to clarify this and see if we can make a decision on whether they are held in secret or in public on a case-by-case basis," Cr Veliskou said this week. Should Marion Council's development panel open its meetings to the public? Marion is the only metropolitan development panel in SA to decide key planning decisions behind closed doors. Cr Veliskou said holding all its discussions in secret gave the community the impression the council had something to hide. "Otherwise there is a whole lot of suspicion behind it," he said. I'm not questioning the DAP or the integrity of their decision, just why it is kept secret. Cr Carol Bouwens disagreed, saying there was "absolutely nothing wrong" with meetings remaining confidential. "In the old days (on the DAP) we'd get a gallery full of people pressuring councillors to vote in a certain way," Cr Bouwens said. This gets rid of all that. People on the panel are there in a planning capacity, not as councillors. Cr David Speirs said he understood the "need for transparency" within the council. "But in saying that, the experts I've spoken to from the panel say there are more open and frank discussions when you have it behind closed doors," Cr Speirs said. Councillors will vote on whether to write to Mr Rau at tonight's (Tuesday, 12 November) council meeting. Cr Veliskou first called for the panel to be opened to the public in 2010.