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Keeping You Informed As at 5 August - I'm still updating this page - please revisit next week If elected Mayor, I’ll reinstate monthly councillor reports so that every elected member has the opportunity to share the work they’ve been doing on behalf of our communities. It’s a simple but important step in building trust and ensuring we’re all accountable for the roles we take on. In the meantime, I’ve been posting monthly round-ups on Facebook throughout my term — not just at election time. You’ll find copies of those updates here, so you can see the work I’ve been doing to represent you. |
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I’ll share more about a range of different topics in a series of short posts over the coming months – but in the meantime I just wanted to let you know even though I haven’t posted I have been busy putting in the mahi for you. Before I put my hand up as a candidate for council I talked to several past and present councillors to gauge how much time would be required – and it came back as round about 20 hours per week – but sometimes much more. I think that was a good estimate. In February I spent just under 110 hours on Council and related matters including travel time. There have been three public meetings this month – the Audit and Risk Meeting on 22 February, Te Raangai Whakakaupapa Koorero on 23 February and the full Council Meeting on 28 February. Recordings of all these meetings can be found at https://www.waitomo.govt.nz/council/council-meetings/ . Agendas and meeting papers for these meetings can be found at https://www.waitomo.govt.nz/council/council-meetings/2023-agenda-minutes/ As well as the public meetings we also meet in Workshops to deep dive into topics in a more informal setting – usually with staff making presentations to bring us all up to speed. We only had one workshop in February around the Annual Plan process and budget. We also had a Strategic Planning Day on Friday 24 February where we all got to know our fellow councillors better and started to lay the groundwork for how we can best work together for the next three years to achieve the best outcomes for our community. Just one of the things coming out of that day was that a short summary of what has been covered in our workshops will be publicly included in our monthly meeting packs. This will help provide more transparency – as sometimes it may seem that there is no discussion at the meeting about a topic – but actually it has been discussed extensively at a workshop. Mayor Robertson and Councillor Manawaiti also accepted the invitation to come and see the current roading situation and storm damage on the roads from Hangatiki out to the west coast at Taharoa and onto Te Waitere and back through Kinohaku. Thank you to Chris Irons for joining us to provide valuable local insight. Several things have come out of that trip and are being worked on. With my strong interest in roading I am now the Waitomo District Council representative on the Regional Transport Committee. I attended my first induction meeting of this committee in February and the first formal quarterly meeting happens in March. I’ll share more about the purpose and work of this committee later. Finally but not least my heart and thoughts go out to everyone who has been impacted by the weather events of the past six weeks. Words are not adequate for those who have lost loved ones. The scale and impact is hard to comprehend and so many families and businesses have a very long haul ahead of them as they rebuild what they can and mourn the loss of what they can’t. Kia Kaha |
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On Wednesday morning I watched Coronation Street in my Dressing Gown … and I didn’t feel guilty!
March was another busy month – I always feel March is a rush because February is missing those extra few days and meetings for March come around that little bit sooner.
On Tuesday 28th we had our monthly council meeting and it was a very full agenda which can be and a recording of the meeting can be found here: https://www.waitomo.govt.nz/.../coun.../2023-agenda-minutes/. There were just over 420 pages to read prior to the meeting – so it was a very busy few days not only reading but going back to prior papers and understanding the background.
Actually I lie – it wasn’t as bad as reading 420 pages because 150 of those pages had already been included and read for our 14 March workshop – the same week I had two other meeting packs of the same size – one for the Waikato Regional Council Regional Transport Committee and one for Waitomo Energy Services Customer Trust.
I was glad to get to the end of that particularly week and spend St Patricks Day at the Local Government New Zealand Zone 2 meeting at Karapiro – which required no pre-reading!!
What a great informative meeting that was. One of the topics was what a council can and can’t do in relation to controversial speakers. I loved the story of a council who found they were legally unable to decline a particularly divisive speaker but were able to show their opposition by projecting the pride rainbow onto the building!
We also had a great practical presentation from AON on risk management, a presentation from Vaughan Payne the newly appointed head of the new Water Services Entity B, and to cap it off we had the Hon. Kieran McAnulty the Minister for Local Government and Emergency Management join us for an interactive Zoom session.
Back near the start of the month Waitomo District Council also brought together over 40 people from a wide range of organisations throughout Waikato to contribute to a workshop which is part of the development of the Waitomo Housing Strategy. There were representatives from MSD, Maru Energy Trust, The Lines Company, MBEI, Momentum Waikato, Kainga Ora, several building companies and many others including fellow elected members Councillors Janene New, Gavin Todd, Deputy Mayor Alan Goddard and Mayor Robertson who was able to join the meeting a little later as he was travelling back from elsewhere.
And then towards the end of the month I also attended a meeting at Te Wharekura o Maniapoto at Oparure which was a follow-on meeting from the deputation received at the 29 November 2022 council meeting regarding road safety concerns. Thank you to principal Denise Marshall and your team for providing a wonderful venue and hospitality. Thank you to the over 35 members of the community who attended to share their concerns and ideas. Thank you to Ben Smit, Shymal Ram from Waitomo District Council, Ryan Stanley (Pinnacles Civil) and Vesta Gribben from Inframax who all came prepared with potential solutions. Just days later these are already starting to be implemented and I will be following these with interest to check that they are addressing the very real concerns that were raised.
Last Saturday the 25 March the Waitomo Sports Committee hosted the Waitomo Sports Day at the Waitomo Caves Domain – as usual I was there for the day selling raffle tickets while other family members were involved in the chopping and easter egg hunt. There was a record turn out with a large number of families as well as horse events, running, music and entertainment, chopping and shearing sports participants. The day included a New Zealand Wales shearing test match. Tukikapu Marae, Waitomo Caves School and Piopio Lions all had fundraising food stalls which I understand all made good profits. It was an excellent example of an alcohol-free family community event.
This week the Secondary Schools National Rowing Championships (Maadi Cup) are being held at Lake Karapiro – and while I haven’t made it along to watch this year, I do keep up my mahi as Treasurer of the Waikato Rowing Club – because back when I was rowing at school someone else must have done the accounts and the boring stuff so that I could focus on enjoying the rowing. It’s always a pleasure when I see a local King Country name of the list of school rowers from Hamilton Girls, Hamilton Boys, Waikato Diocesan and St Johns which all row out of the Waikato Rowing Club facilities at Hamilton and Karapiro.
It has also been a busy and fulfilling month with my role as a Trustee of Waitomo Energy Services Customer Trust (WESCT) with meetings for Maru Energy Trust and a strategic planning session with The Lines Company held.
So, after all that I didn’t feel guilty at all still being in my dressing gown late morning on Wednesday watching Coronation Street!!
Roll on April – I am truly grateful and humbled for the opportunity to contribute back to our community.
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