Council to meet for the first time after election

Members of the Rotorua Lakes Council and its two new community boards will be sworn in tomorrow.

Rotorua's recently elected district councillors and community board members will swear to "faithfully and impartially" serve the community for the next three years at their first meeting.

The 10 members of the council and mayor Steve Chadwick will make and sign their official declarations before they take office from 10.30am tomorrow in the Rotorua Lakes Council chamber.

From 3pm tomorrow, the four members of the council's new Rural Community Board and the four members of its Lakes Community Board will also be sworn in for their three-year term.

Mrs Chadwick is also expected to make her inaugural speech before the rest of the council is sworn in and Dave Donaldson is officially appointed as her deputy.

Once that is done, the council will officially set the date for the first council meeting, set down for Wednesday from 9.30am.

The council's corporate and customer services group manager Jean-Paul Gaston will also provide the council with an overview of key legislation they need to be aware of as they fulfil their duties, including the Local Government Act 2002, Crimes Act 1961 and the Secret Commissions Act 1910.

Councillors will declare "that I will faithfully and impartially, and according to the best of my skill and judgment, execute and perform, in the best interests of the Rotorua district, the powers, authorities, and duties vested in, or imposed upon, me as a member of Rotorua Lakes Council, by virtue of the Local Government Act 2002, the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987, and any other Act".

Councillors will be sworn in in alphabetical order - Peter Bentley, Dave Donaldson, Mark Gould, Karen Hunt, Rob Kent, Raj Kumar, Trevor Maxwell, Merepeka Raukawa-Tait, Charles Sturt and Tania Tapsell.

For their first meeting on Wednesday, councillors are expected to confirm a schedule of meetings for the rest of the year and sign off on the council's annual report for the year ended June 30, 2016.

They will also confidentially discuss a recommendation regarding "event contract support".

Later in the day, a combined meeting of the Rural Community Board and Lakes Community Board will see each of those boards four members sworn in which will be followed by the election of chair people and deputy chair people for both boards.

The lakes board is made up of Nick Chater, Jim Stanton, Fred Stevens and Phill Thomass.

The rural board is made up of Bob Martin, Euan McLachlan, Chris Sutton and Shirley Trumper.

The public are welcome at both swearing in ceremonies.