Some Tauranga Council committees to be disbanded

Tauranga Council offices are located on Willow St. Photo: Ursula Keay.

Tauranga City Council's commissioners have adopted an interim committee structure which will see most of the Council's standing committees disbanded, in the short-term.

At yesterday's Council meeting – the first involving the Commission appointed by Local Government Minister, Hon. Nanaia Mahuta, earlier this month – the commissioners also amended the existing standing orders to remove the time limit on their speaking rights and moved to increase the availability of public forum speaking slots.

Chair Anne Tolley says the Commission wants to hear from as many members of the community as possible as it worked towards the adoption of the city's 2021-31 Long-term Plan.

'We'll be going out to the community to hear what people want for their city and talk through the options in front of us.

'As part of that process, we also want to make our public forums more accessible for more people, so the length of time available at the start of each Council meeting will be at the Chair's discretion, with people representing organisations provided with a minimum five-minute speaking opportunity. It will be very informal though.”

Tolley says the Chair's casting vote will be retained, but hopes it will not be needed.

As a result of yesterday's governance decisions, the Finance, Audit and Risk; Policy; Projects, Services and Operations; Urban Form and Transport Development; Regulatory; and Chief Executive's Performance committees have all been discharged and the Commission will consider whether to establish further standing committees at a later date.

However, Council meetings will be held more frequently, and as needed.

Meanwhile, the Tangata Whenua/Tauranga City Council Committee, City Plan Hearings Committee and Wastewater Management Review Committee will continue with the same terms of reference, but with new commissioner appointments to represent the Council.

Commissioner appointments have also been made to joint committees, including the Smartgrowth Leadership Group, Bay of Plenty Civil Defence Emergency Management Group, Te Maru o Kaituna (Kaituna River Authority), Regional Transport Committee and the Bay of Plenty Regional Council's Public Transport Committee. Appointments to some key advisory groups were also confirmed.

Details of the new representation arrangements will be available on the Council website.

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6 comments

What A Great Headline

Posted on 23-02-2021 10:34 | By Yadick

That's all :-)


Tom Ranger

Posted on 23-02-2021 10:36 | By Tom Ranger

Keep on cutting/investigating. With the stuff-ups and all the money involved. I have my suspicions whether there have been moral/criminal offences committed to get deals/money awarded to particular groups/people whom I can safely assume have some sort of "agreement" type relationship with each-other. Yes I'm suggesting corruption.


Email address please?

Posted on 23-02-2021 10:40 | By Equality

Sunlive ... can you please obtain an email address to which we can outline our grievances to the commissioners. Thank you


@ Equality, @ Tom Ranger

Posted on 23-02-2021 12:48 | By Yadick

Great idea Equality. A lot of people would use that. Tom - congratulations for having the balls to say that. Most of think corruption but you've actually stood up and said it. Well done. I stand with you on this.


Tom Ranger

Posted on 23-02-2021 13:50 | By Tom Ranger

@Yadick. Unfortunately. Experience tells me these types of deals are much more widespread and common than one might think. Interesting for instance. That we have not heard from our local rubbish collectors. (I suspect they have been paid out with our money to stay quiet).


We don't need to suspect...

Posted on 23-02-2021 16:31 | By morepork

... corruption, when ineptitude is just as likely. But corruption cannot be ruled out and it would be good for an independent investigation, with power to subpoena documents and people and reporting directly to the Commissioners, to investigate the allocation of contractors to Council RFPs and tenders. If they find nothing, everyone can rest a little easier; if they find something, then we can prepare tar and feathers... (Personally, I have doubts about the "Refuse Solution" and how it was arrived at, but independent investigation could settle it.) If Council was truly transparent, we wouldn't need such a probe. An email address for the Commission is a great idea.


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