But government legislation will prevent their implementation in time for the local body elections in October next year, and delay the introduction of any new wards until the next elections in 2025.
Last week, the Hastings District Council, the Hawke's Bay Regional Council and Tararua District Council each decided to have Māori wards at the 2022 elections, as will many others throughout the country, although most have not yet considered finer details such as numbers of councillors or wards.
Napier completed a usually six-yearly statutory representation review in 2018 heralding a suburbs-by-suburbs full-wards system at the next year's elections doing away with an at-large aspect in which half of its 12 councillors were elected by all voters across the city.
It has advanced its next review to take in the Māori wards issue, and the Central Hawke's Bay District Council will do so by having its review in 2023.
The Wairoa District Council was one of the first to implement a Māori ward, now represented by three councillors chosen at the last elections 19 months ago.
Napier elected two Māori councillors in the general vote in the Nelson Park Ward in 2019, but Wise said in her letter that as no previous consultation had taken place on the issue in Napier the council "must consider the views of the whole community".
She said that following the passing of the Local Electoral (Māori Wards and Māori Constituencies) Amendment Act, which came into effect on March 2 and introduced the May 21 deadline, the Napier council had established a new Directorate of Council - Te Waka Rangapu – to enable increased and appropriate engagement with Māori and mana whenua partners "including the creation of Māori wards in Napier."
The council believed public consultation was warranted to assist the council in the process, and the mayor said that two judicial reviews of council decisions in recent years "lends itself to taking a cautious pathway".
Wise said that "unfortunately" the timeframe afforded by central government between March 2 and May 21 did not provide Napier sufficient time to progress the matter in the circumstances.
Mahuta acknowledged the original extension to May 21 "did not provide a great deal of time for councils that are new to this kaupapa".
She said the time extension needed to be constrained because councils needed time to complete their representation reviews after the decision was made on Māori wards, and by September 8.
A further extension of that deadline would have needed urgent legislation and may create uncertainty for other councils completing their reviews, and leave insufficient time for appeals to the Local Government Commission or the High Court.
"I know that you will be disappointed that the deadline for decisions on establishing Māori wards for the next triennial election cannot be extended further," Mahuta wrote.
"However, I encourage your council to continue dialogue with your community on this issue to support a well-informed decision at the next opportunity to consider this."
