Council Representation under review

Follow this link for the Consultation Document and link to an online submission form.

The Elected Member representation on Council has been reviewed and a formal proposal is tabled with the community for submissions. Following robust debate, Council is proposing two changes to the status quo. For clarity the status quo is:

• Three wards - Tokoroa, Putāruru and Tīrau
• Ten Councillors - six in Tokoroa, three in Putāruru and one in Tīrau each elected by their respective ward
• One community board - the Tīrau Community Board

Council's proposal is that:

• The total number of Councillors remains at ten (same as status quo).
• There is two wards - north and south (different to status quo). Given the proposal to retain ten Councillors (point above), this would mean four Councillors in the North Ward and six Councillors in the South Ward.
• We have no community boards (different to status quo). The current Community Board costs the current Tīrau Ward boundary ratepayers (not across the district) $13,000. This money could be better utilised to support community development and project for Tirau.

"The community is invited to submit on this proposal," said Ben Smit, Deputy Chief Executive. "The way our community is represented is an important issue for our district and will remain in place for the next six years; when we are required to conduct another representation review."

Mayor Neil Sinclair said that Council, through the Long Term Plan process, had reviewed all of Council's operations looking for efficiencies and effectiveness so it was important that governance was put under the same review process.

Council discussed various options at length but is required, by legislation, to produce only one formal proposal. This is expected to be released for formal consultation in May. However Council is very keen to start community debate on several points. Some of these are:

• Should we reduce the number of Councillors from ten to eight? Mayor Sinclair said that the number of Councillors per population in the South Waikato was significantly higher than in other councils in the region and that a reduction of two Councillors would mean a cost saving of over $40,000. However what impact would this have on the community's access to Councillors and the workload of the remaining eight Councillors?
• Should we stick with three wards? Two wards means that the Tokoroa urban area and the area to the south of Tokoroa would be the South Ward and Putāruru, Tīrau, Arapuni and the northern rural areas would be the North Ward. The north/south ward boundary is likely to be the same as the current boundary between the Tokoroa and Putaruru wards. Would having four Councillors in a North Ward serving Putāruru, Tīrau, Arapuni and associated rural areas be better than the current ward/Councillor structure or would the people of the two current wards feel a loss of identity?
• Should our community have community boards? We currently only have one community board and under the proposal the Tīrau Community Board would be abolished. This may or may not fit the sentiment of the community. Would a revitalised Business Association and/or community groups serve the Tīrau community better than the current community board that has to conform to legislative red tape in terms of the way they operate? Some people have raised the possibility of community boards in other (current) wards too. It will be interesting to hear about their thoughts.

A consultation document will be released in late May. After that there will be a month when anyone can make a submission. Council staff will be presenting the proposal and discussion points at a wide variety of group meetings. Council hearings and deliberations will then take place and a second (final) Council proposal will be publicised. Following this, if there are objections, the Local Government Commission will step in and decide the outcome. Ends: words: 623