Editorial: Nothing on the agenda?

Long-time councillor Glenys Searancke said sometimes it was not even worth having a meeting. Photo / Andrew Warner

Rotorua may be a small city but there's certainly enough going on to keep our council busy.

Except lately maybe there hasn't been.

Some councillors say they're concerned about recent lightweight agendas, with little for members of the public to get their teeth into.

The agenda for last night's Rotorua District Council meeting had no publicly debatable items (though there were two confidential items to discuss).

Long-time councillor Glenys Searancke said sometimes it was not even worth having a meeting.

That's concerning given the many issues facing any city or district this size.

Mrs Searancke is right to say few issues should be confidential - after all, these are our elected councillors working on our behalf to make decisions about our district.

On top of that there must be plenty going on.

Of course, we don't want the opposite scenario where council meetings are hampered by overloaded agendas filled with minutiae and irrelevance.

Council staff are earning their keep streamlining the issues to pave the way for efficient debate.

It should also be kept in mind the council has been through a major upheaval recently and that, as noted in our story yesterday, once all new staff are on board and everything is up and running at full speed, we'll see an improvement and bigger agendas.

Our council meetings should definitely be worth holding - and the greater say councillors and members of the public can have on the issues, the better.