Voting rights for Community Board Chairpersons at meetings of the council
The Local Government Act 2002 needs amending so that a Community Board Chairperson may vote at meetings of the council, on matters directly affecting their community board area. At present, Community Board Chairs may attend and speak, but they hold no vote – which leaves the democratic voice of the communities that elected them heard but not counted.
I note the recent announcement by David Seymour ACT Party, restricting council committee voting rights to elected councillors, and the reasoning behind it: that those who vote should be directly accountable to voters. I raise this because that same reasoning supports my request. Community Board members, including the Chair, are elected under the Local Electoral Act 2001, by the same democratic process as councillors. They carry the same direct accountability to the people who elected them. The current position – where an elected Chair can be outvoted by co-opted or appointed committee members on matters affecting their own ward, yet has no vote at all at the full council table – sits oddly alongside a policy built on exactly this accountability principle.
David Yeomans, Pauanui
HAVE MY SAY ON AMALGAMATION
My sentiment is shared by a number of Ratepayers that I have spoken to across our district who value local democracy and financial accountability.
Our Council has worked hard to get ahead.
Forcing a merger with surrounding Councils that are in poor financial health is a massive step backwards, this decision unfairly penalizes our community for the fiscal mismanagement of others.
Thames-Coromandel has unique needs around Roading, Coastal issues and Tourism that are best understood by a local Council, as a district with a relatively small population we face a severe risk of being marginalized.
In a larger, centralized structure, funding and resources will naturally gravitate towards higher population areas, and our local voice will be diluted and decisions will be made further away by people who do not know our communities, leaving Thames-Coromandel with less money and fewer resources to maintain our own infrastructure and services.
This erosion of local autonomy and shift towards centralized control feels far from democracy.
I urge Council to advocate strongly on behalf of Ratepayers and resist any forced amalgamation.
Terry Carter, Ratepayer Whitianga
