​Do you feel fairly and effectively represented by your council?

Ōpōtiki Mayor, David Moore, is encouraging people in the Ōpōtiki district to think about how their voices are heard at the council table and the best way to ensure a diversity of views in decision-making.

The council is carrying out a representation review following the decision to implement Māori wards in December 2023.

“The usual rule is that we do a representation review every six years. But because we voted to implement Māori wards late last year, we need to do one now so that we know what our structure looks like with Māori wards included in time for the 2025 elections,” Mayor Moore said.

The current make-up of the council is six councillors elected from three wards (the Coast ward, the Ōpōtiki Ward, and the Waioeka-Waiōtahe-Otara Ward) and a Mayor elected at large. There is also one community board, the Coast Community Board, with four members.

With the addition of Māori wards, the number and ward boundaries will need to change to meet electoral requirements. The Ōpōtiki district has 45% Māori electoral population and 55% General electoral population meaning there will need to be around the same number of Māori wards as General wards. Laying Māori wards over the top of the existing structure would double the number of elected representatives which is an unlikely option.

“The number of councillors is a good place to start the conversation because it is a bit of a balancing act – lots of representation and sharing the workload across more people is certainly an advantage. But councils also get large and unwieldy, and it can be difficult to make good decisions.

“I do get asked about this a lot, so it is also worth noting that more councillors doesn’t mean paying more in salaries. For ratepayers, the cost won’t change because the remuneration of elected members is set independently by the Remuneration Authority. They base it on a number of factors like our population size and how much we spend as a council. They decide the size of the “pot” of money, and we have to share that out between more or fewer elected members.

“I personally feel like we are spread pretty thin with the geography of the district and the amount of work councils now do. So it would be good to know how the community feels about that as well,” Mayor Moore said.

The Mayor reiterated that the Oath of Office requires that elected members work for the best outcomes for the whole district, not just their wards.

“Once you are at the table you are there for everyone. But good decisions come from robust discussions with a wide range of views and opinions. That is one advantage of wards – it means we come from different communities and can share different points of view, issues and concerns.

“We all also know that across Aotearoa, voting numbers are dropping and it is hard to get people to care about what councils are doing. So if people can see their views reflected at the council table, they’ll feel more involved in what the council does and more engaged in our processes,” Mayor Moore said.

Council’s Connect | Hono Mai website provides lots of information on the process and asks some broad questions to encourage feedback. At this stage feedback is very general and informal, helping councillors shape their preferred option. In August, this preferred option will be shared with the community for formal submissions.

“I’d encourage people to think about the structure they’d like to see for council. Do we still want wards? Should those wards be similar to what they are now? What about boundaries for Māori wards? What could they be called?

“We can also consider how we balance our urban and rural voices, our isolated communities, and whether community boards work well for us here in Ōpōtiki. This is your chance to shape representation at the council table,” Mayor Moore said.