4 August 2021
Media: Local Democracy Reporter
Topic: Urgent items at meetings
Enquiry
Could [DCE Leadership and Democracy] Oonagh [Hopkins] please provide me with a comment explaining what, according to standing orders, is the definition of an urgent item?
Looking at the Standing Orders I gather what is and isn't is at the discretion of the chair but it would be good to have some clarity around it.
Response
Response from DCE District Leadership & Democracy, Oonagh Hopkins:
Committee/Council meetings are the mechanism whereby Council makes decisions. In order to make a decision on a matter, it must first be on the agenda.
Matters requiring a decision may be placed on an agenda of a meeting via a:
- Report of the chief executive/officer report endorsed by chief executive
- Report of a chairperson
- Report of a committee
- Report of a community and / or local board: or
- Notice of motion from a member
Where a matter is considered urgent but has not been placed on an agenda, it may be brought before a meeting as extraordinary business by a:
- Report of chief executive/officer endorsed by chief executive
- Report of chairperson
Where an item is outside the time of time of a notice of motion, a member may bring an urgent matter to the attention of the meeting through the meeting chair.
From the chair’s position the decision to accept an “urgent item” or not comes back to:
- What is being requested and whether a decision is required;
- Whether the item is in fact general business that could and should be raised under the appropriate deputy chief executive section of the operations report;
- Whether it could be referred back to staff to bring to another meeting supported by a report;
Whether it could be dealt with in conversation between the councillor and the appropriate deputy chief executive.
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Media: NZME (Rotorua Daily Post and BOP Times)
Topic: Climate action plans
Enquiry
*NOTE: enquiry was sent to all district councils in the BOP Regional Council area
I'm following up on the regional council's climate change action plan from yesterday, as detailed below, and I've received comment from a climate change stakeholder who says that while the BOPRC effort is admirable, he'd like to see more support from other BOP councils to address climate change as BOPRC has done with its action plan.
I'd like to put this comment to each of you for a response:
How is your council supporting BOPRC to better address climate change?
Response
Council provided the following information:
- Enhanced Environment is one of the goals of the Rotorua 2030 Vision
- RLC is a member of the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy
- RLC adopted a Climate Action Plan in February 2021. The plan sets out a variety of actions. You’ll find the Climate Action Plan HERE
- Addressing Climate Change is a key priority in RLC’s 2021-31 Long-term Plan. For quick reference, the following is an excerpt from our LTP relating to this:
Council adopted its Climate Action Plan, in February 2021.
Guided by the Zero Carbon Act, it has been developed in partnership with stakeholders and the wider community.
The Climate Action Plan is the blueprint for combating climate change in the District. Many of the actions required are reflected within the Council’s 30-year Infrastructure Strategy.
Rotorua is proud to be leading the way, being one of the first in the country to adopt a climate action plan. This plan provides a focus on sustainably protecting our people and place while protecting our environment.
Our goal is to position Rotorua in a low carbon economy and to ensure we work towards establishing ourselves as a resilient community that can adapt to the changes in climate.
In addition to reducing the impacts of climate change, there are other benefits associated with mitigation, including health and wellbeing gains from warmer homes, walking and cycling; cost savings to households and businesses through energy efficiency; affordable public transport services; and, opportunities to grow the resilience of the Rotorua economy through high-value, low-carbon emissions products and services.
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Media: Local Democracy Reporter
Topic: Councillor lead roles appointed by Mayor
Enquiry
Councillor Tapsell has clarified some of her comments about the housing councillor lead role/s are actually criticism of the mayor.
Steve - I know you have seen these already but particularly the line about being a 'token gesture' is about the councillor lead role, and therefore a criticism of you, not the government.
With this in mind, I'd of course like to provide you with the opportunity to respond. Comments are below - I've left them in context but highlighted the ones most relevant to you in yellow.
I would also like to invite the council to respond to the line in green as it's my understanding the council organisation would have a role in informing Tania, in her capacity as a housing councillor lead, about relevant workshops with stakeholders held at the council in a timely way.
Speaking to Local Democracy Reporting on Monday, Tapsell said when she had led the housing lead role she had enjoyed setting up a plan for the district’s housing through the council’s Homes and Thriving Communities Strategic Framework, which was passed in 2020.
“What I found is, once Government got involved, the decision-making just got completely taken out of my hands and I was finding things out either through the media … or after the fact.
“I’ve always been really clear with the mayor that I will only lead something that I am actually given the ability to lead, so I was no longer interested.”
She said an example of decision-making being taken out of her hands was with the city’s emergency housing.
“I made quite a strong comment in the council meeting about the Government dictating.
“There would be workshops with our stakeholders being hosted at [the] council, that I would find out [about] about a day before.
“I had no appetite for being used as a token gesture and felt my voice was stronger outside of that group, advocating for the people I represent.”
She believed the issue was something specific to this Government, rather than central government generally.
“It’s been no surprise that I’ve been critical of this Government and their inability to deliver on promises they’ve made around housing. To not have a local voice taken seriously … I just fundamentally didn’t agree with it.”
Response
From Mayor Chadwick:
We have moved into a new phase in addressing the district’s key challenges, in alignment with the priorities and direction of our 2021-31 Long-term Plan.
I’m saddened Cr Tapsell feels that way and would have liked her to be involved in the housing kaupapa, but accept her decision to instead focus on her role as councillor lead for the Active and Engaged Communities workstream.
From DCE Chief Executive’s Group, Craig Tiriana:
There are times when meetings or forums have to be arranged with little lead-in time due to the nature and speed of the work that is happening and/or any need for something to be dealt with urgently. The organisation does its best to keep elected members informed and up to date. From time to time there may be purely operational meetings that elected members would not need to attend.