Councillors worried about 'light' agendas

Tonight's Rotorua District Council meeting agenda has no publicly debatable items and is a total of 10 pages long. Photo / Stephen Parker

Public in dark over talks at meetings

Some Rotorua district councillors are becoming concerned at the lack of publicly available information in their meeting agendas.

In the past few months, agendas which used to be more than 100 pages in length have shrivelled up with fewer items being included for debate.

Tonight's Rotorua District Council meeting agenda has no publicly debatable items and is a total of 10 pages long.

But, there are two confidential items for councillors to discuss.

Long-serving councillor Glenys Searancke said she believed very few issues should be made confidential.

"It does concern me that they are getting smaller and smaller, sometimes it's not even worth having a meeting.

"We have asked staff to work on it, it seems to me there are too many things going into the confidential part of the meeting," she said.

Councillor Mike McVicker echoed her concerns saying he was troubled there was little for the public to get involved in.

"But, I'm assured this will soon change," he said.

Council chief executive Geoff Williams said the council had been moving through a period of "gearing up" following the recent restructure.

"It is expected meeting agendas will become much fuller in the coming months as the changes and new staff appointments within the organisation take fuller effect.

"The focus is now on providing a forum for good governance that allows time for robust examination and discussion on items.

This means items-for-information that may have filled up meeting agendas in the past would not make a current/future agenda in that form," Mr Williams said.

Deputy mayor Dave Donaldson said he agreed, "the agendas have been a bit light" but it had been a case where the recent reorganisation of the council had taken precedent.

"Our portfolio groups are not yet fully up and running and we have had some extraordinary meetings.

"But, this in no way means there is not a lot being worked on. I've never been busier," he said.

Councillor and Operations and Monitoring Committee chairwoman Janet Wepa said a couple of councillors had expressed that view during meetings.

"With my committee it's down to the change in focus to encourage us to look at the big picture rather than getting into too much detail," she said.