Community Board proposes new meeting formats

May 11th, 2015

The Motueka Community Board will decide tomorrow if it will change its monthly meeting schedule to a six-week cycle, with a less formal public forum held between each meeting.

The move, proposed by chairman Paul Hawkes and briefly discussed at the April meeting, aims to enable more cohesion to meeting formats, which in the past have been hampered by a range of presentations to the board some of which took far longer than warranted.

For years now the meetings, always held on the second Tuesday of the month, have begun with a half-hour public forum starting at 4.00pm, and then involved presentations by groups on issues or simply information provision, and has become common for these to go on until around 6.00pm before the board got on with its own agenda.

Speakers at the public forum have also been frustrated that under Standing Orders the board members could not reply to questions or criticisms, and sometimes could not even include issues raised by the public in that day's agenda.

The length of meetings and the difficulty of addressing immediate public issues has been leading to meeting formats which do not entice the general public to attend or to stay very long.

Under the proposal to be discussed tomorrow, the remaining six-weekly full meetings of the board would be on 23rd June, 4th August, 15th September, 27th October and 8th December. Each meeting would receive reports from one of the three heads of relevant Council departments - Engineering, Community Development and Environment & Planning.

The Open Forum meetings would be on 7th July, 18th August, 29th September, 10th November and 5th January.

Having separate and less formal public forum meetings could "encourage more willingness of individuals to attend and consult, express opinions and concerns and share ideas, with the Board not having constraints of the Local Government rules with respect to agendas and standing orders etc", says Paul Hawkes.

"[Those rules were] not allowing us the opportunity to openly discuss and debate these issues arising, or being presented to us. Some individuals may find a more relaxed atmosphere more appealing to their wishes and speak more openly without "official representation" being present from Council.

"This would give us adequate time to discuss them and include worthy items for consideration in the next Board agenda, allowing for more vigorous debate and also allow us the due time to investigate and carry out inquiries relating to what has been raised.

"Should the person wish to be heard formally in the public forum at the beginning of the Board meeting, this matter can also then be added to the official agenda, with all homework being carried out and the person given the chance to offer a quick summation formally - not a full presentation but a chance to officially be heard and recognised.

"It is my thoughts that notes and service requests from such open forum meetings would be taken and then reported to the relevant Council department for comment or action."

He said this is an attempt to streamline the Board's meeting processes and allow vigorous and effective decision-making in a more acceptable timeframe.

>> , to be added to the page. [If this link doesn't work, use this form instead]

[ Return ]
[ Other news articles ]

We wish to thank these local community-minded businesses who generously sponsor our site. They recognise the value of supporting this community asset, and in return Motueka Online is pleased to use and recommend their services whenever appropriate.

Ray White Motueka, Nelson Building Society, House of Travel, , ,
Steph Wills Dental Surgery, Elevation Cafe, Restaurant & Bar, Unichem Pharmacy