Extra meetings were eating into constituency time, too much time was spent on items not requiring a decision, and the work programme was expanding by calls for reports or extra work that was not prioritised.
The six "reporting" subcommittees, where public participation plays a big part, will now meet every two or three months instead of every six weeks. The aim to is make them more outcome-focused.
The grunty whole-of-council committees have been left untouched, except for merging the budget committee with the finance and performance committee after the completion of the new 10-year budget this month.
But several reporting committee chairs are unhappy. Arts, culture and events committee chairman Alf Filipaina said it "let the public down".
Community, development and safety committee chairwoman Cathy Casey, who holds meetings around the region, said people saw the council as out of touch.
"Do not restructure the reporting committees. They are what makes this council tick," she said.
Other councillors, including George Wood, Chris Fletcher and Denise Krum, did not think the changes went far enough.
"Democracy is an expensive beast," said Franklin's Bill Cashmore, saying fewer meetings would bring a greater focus on delivering results.
Deputy mayor Penny Hulse said the council was not judged by how many committees it had but what got done. Councillor Chris Darby suggested the next council move to a Cabinet of leaders.
Ken Palmer, University of Auckland law professor and local government expert, said the review was timely. "There is nothing worse than turning up for a meeting, there is nothing new and you are simple regurgitating something you did at the last meeting."
