There seems to be some confusion among our new Tauranga City councillors regarding their representative roles. It appears some take the view that they are elected for their skills and competencies to govern and lead the city. Such councillors tend to pop up at election time, and their communities see little of them until the next election. They see themselves as governors or elected board members.

This was highlighted in a recently reported comment by one of the new councillors: “We are the Governors, and we can’t allow the people to challenge our decisions”.

Local Government NZ defines elected members as representatives and advocates for their community to engage with their communities and represent their views. Most academic definitions all agree that a representative is a person who represents another person or a group, someone chosen to speak or act for other people. Local Government NZ defines a councillor role as elected representatives expected to represent their communities in decision and policy-making.

To accurately represent the community infers decisions based on a communal consensus – not the opinion of an elected member. To achieve this elected members, need to be active about their wards, all credit to councillors Crowther, Curach, Morris and Mayor Drysdale who to my knowledge have attended community and ratepayers meetings and listened to their ratepayers.

Michael O'Neill, Tauranga City