"They still have to take leadership and make the decisions and trade-offs, but we are here to somewhat informally get an open-ended sense from the community of their big picture vision for the district, how they want to be known as a district."
The meetings will be in Waipukurau, Waipawa, Tikokino, Ongaonga, Otane, Porangahau, Flemington, Omakere and Takapau, and would involve people breaking into small groups to express how they feel about the area, both as a whole compared perhaps to wider Hawke's Bay or Manawatu, and also in terms of the individual townships and communities.
"Some might want to get enterprise such as agriculture and building more wealth via the district's existing strength, others may be focused on the environment sensitivity and the balance between agriculture and the environment.
"Urban people may say we have to work on genuine ingenuity to make it a fun place and support people starting new businesses to retain the younger people."
Communities would also have specific, justified needs requiring addressing such as earthquake strengthening buildings, provision of clean water, transport or recreational, he said.
It would not be a free-for-all infrastructure grab though, there could be trade-offs required.
"We know we can't just put down a wish-list and then not pay for it."
In other places they had conducted such projects, like Marlborough, he said the communities and Marlborough District Council got more clarity on where to prioritise infrastructure with the benefit of an objective, third-party analysis.
Before the public meetings, smaller meetings with local iwi and leaders in the likes of agriculture, community, environment, education, the elderly, business as well as councillors were being held.
"If there are people already doing things they are likely to be people who have thought strategically about it already and have the energy to continue further.
"The conversation with them is about the whole district and we will test some of these ideas at the public meetings if they don't come naturally and ask them what they think of them."
The cost of the project was estimated at $45,000 to $50,000 and when introducing the initiative Mayor Alex Walker encouraged people to attend.
"It is important the council receives as much information as possible because a vision of what the future could hold for Central Hawke's Bay will only work if residents and ratepayers are involved from the beginning.
"If there are barriers to success, the council wants to know if there's something it can do to change this."
The first meeting will be at Waipukurau Primary School today, from 6pm to 8pm.
Details of the other meetings are on the CHB District Council website.