Council committee may get wider powers

Mayor Stuart Crosby

Limited decision-making powers could be granted to a Tauranga City Council committee set up to forge a partnership with tangata whenua.

Mayor Stuart Crosby has signalled that some decisions could be made by the joint committee of tangata whenua and the Tauranga City Council.

Representatives of Tauranga Moana's iwi and hapu want to increase the powers of the committee - it was currently an advisory body that recommended to council.

The request from the city's Tangata Whenua Collective was relayed to yesterday's committee meeting by Puhirake Ihaka.

Mr Crosby said one of the difficulties of giving the committee full decision-making powers was that it only had six council representatives. Significant decisions would need to go to the full council but issues of a minor nature could be decided by the committee. Mr Ihaka conceded that significant decisions would have to go to the council but other decisions could be delegated. "We would like to look at that."

Mr Crosby said strategies and policies could not be delegated. He said the committee often looked backwards to historic stuff and not enough energy was put into looking forward. The key thing to concentrate on was what the committee could achieve in the next 18 months, he said.

Tangata whenua member Maru Tapsell said looking backwards told you something, such as the impact of the fire sales of public assets in the 1980s and the impact on Treaty of Waitangi claims. It triggered the successful challenge by the New Zealand Maori Council on the sales of state forests. Looking forward, he said attempts to stimulate the economy was helping the Chinese takeover of New Zealand's natural resources.

Karora Smith said decision making should be a collaborative thing, such as how development of the downtown waterfront could affect the mana of the environment.

Councillor John Robson wanted to see the committee's power to recommend lead to more topics placed in a public forum.