Representation Review 2020-2021

COMING SOON!
Whangārei District Council Representation review 2020 - 2021.
The recent decision to bring in Māori wards has triggered a representation review.

What does that mean?
This review will allow the people have their say on their representation to ensure they are represented as equitably as possible over the whole District.

There will be a minimum of 2 wards regardless of the way forward with Māori and General wards.

Recently WDC also voted to stay with the First Past the Post election system over STV. This will not change, however feedback is always welcome.

In essence we have the chance to have a 'clean slate' on how Local Government represents us here in Whangārei District.

It includes a review with consultation to ask Whangārei: 
How many Councillors you want, 
How they are elected - Wards/District Wide/ Mixed, 
Boundaries, Names, and number of councillors to each ward, 
or even consider Community Boards. 

This will then be able to then reflect the people who live in the areas today after having the Wards since 1989 when they were set up, with minor changes over the years.

This review must be done every 6 years, but when establishing Māori Wards, a full representation is required.

A formula under the Local Electoral Act 2001 determines the number of Māori wards and General wards sets the ratio. 
Numbers from June 2020 show, 18,800 on the Māori Electoral Population and 79,600 on the general Electoral Population.
For example: If we have between 8-13 Councillors total we will get 2 Māori ward councillors, 14 will provide 3.

Currently we have the Mayor who is elected District wide and 13 councillors from 6 wards.
Bream Bay-2, Denby-3, Hikurangi- Coastal-2, Mangakahia-Maungatapere-1, Okara-4, Whangarei Heads-1. 
We have no Community Boards.

Currently each Councillor represents approximately 7,564 resident population within approximately +/-10% of the resident population.

Each elected members pay comes through as Honoraria. 
Each council’s governance pool is aligned with their ranking of the council on the relevant size index and within the framework of the new local government pay scale. 
The governance pool has no relationship to the number of councillors.
If a council wishes to change the number of councillors and the Local Government Commission agrees, the size of the governance pool will NOT change, it will just have to be shared amongst more or fewer councillors.

Informal consultation will be coming in April until May 2021 to get people talking about the potentials and work out some of the issues.

Formal Consultation process between June and October 2021.
See the timeline attached and keep watching this space. 

Todays briefing chaired by the independent Local Electoral Officer, Dale Ofsoske, was held with members of the public, Te Kārearea and elected members.
You can find the briefing paper for this meeting by following this link. 

https://pub-wdc.escribemeetings.com/FileStream.ashx?DocumentId=1957

If you want to keep your eye on what meetings are coming up, check out the Council meetings and agendas tab on the website.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Climate change emergency?

It's been acknowledged that it is an issue, it needs to be dealt with with urgency. A "statement of concern and intention, but a demand for the Government to take more leadership on climate change". You won't be here in 100 years and may not care what happens to your children, or children's children, but trying to cover costs then to try to fix things won't help. The costs will be much greater, and then who gets looked after? Think of the costs then, trying to salvage what we have left. It's not about making money, it's about trying to give us and our way of life now a fighting chance. Yes, the Climate changes anyway, so what's the harm in trying to stop as much of our impact on our living environment as possible? When we die, all we take with us is what we leave behind. Whangārei District declares climate change emergency
Read more

Connections are one of my points to bring to council. Think about safety and usability.

Image
We need to address this situation BEFORE there is a fatality! Do you feel safe riding or walking along the side of a road? How about trying to cross Port Road Bridge? This bridge was built in 1956, 63 years ago. How many Near Misses have happened? How many accidents have happened? Most other bridges in town have footpaths attached, either once side or both. For some reason... this doesn't have one! With a huge amount of people working out towards the Port, why hasn't this happened sooner. NZTA says that if you are to walk on a road, walk towards the traffic, but that would also mean crossing the road, which is tricky enough having to cross 2 sets of double lanes, and merging ones at that. (We all know how good some are at merging) I have heard that there is some plans to put a bridge across here when the shared path goes in... but how far away is that? A couple of years away at the earliest, if it doesn't get pushed back. I currently drive across this bridge daily and see...
Read more

Isn't a library just books? Not anymore!

Image
A 3D printing service, Free Wi-Fi, or even Free online Movie Access.? The public library isn’t just books, magazines and newspapers. It is Free for a membership to the Whangarei District Library and you can get many benefits and educational resources. You get the benefit of the large selection of book within the library, genealogy resources, a Northland specific room, historical New Zealand books and maps. You can gain access to online movies, newspapers, apps and online resources. There are also computers, internet access, free Wi-Fi, printing, photocopying, and meeting rooms. But wait there’s more! There is and really you need to decide where to go first. There is a café, hang out or even space get lost in a new adventure. Last but certainly not least, you can choose from 4 awesome Library Cards featuring some of the awesome locations around Whangarei. I chose Ocean Beach. But there is also Mt Manaia, Te Matau a Pohe, and one of the waterfalls. The design itself is a pret...
Read more