Democracy is in community's hands (+video)

Rotorua Lakes Council hopes the electoral review, Your Choice, would galvanise members of the public to engage with local democracy.

Rotorua mayor Steve Chadwick has spoken of her desire for increased voter turnout in the city at the launch of a new council review process on electoral representation.

The mayor expressed her hope that the electoral review, Your Choice, would galvanise members of the public to engage with local democracy.

"This is defining the future of our district," Mrs Chadwick said yesterday.

She said it was "cold comfort", as a politician, to be elected on a majority of less than half the eligible vote, and said she would "love to see over 50 per cent [turnout at the next local election]".

Turnout at the last council elections in 2013 was under 44 per cent.

People who had been "confused" by the Te Arawa Partnership Model submission process would have another chance to express their views on how the city's democracy should operate with the new review, the mayor said. A working party for the electoral review will be chaired by councillor Merepeka Raukawa-Tait.

Yesterday, she described Your Choice as a "wonderful opportunity for our community to look at how their representatives are elected to council". "Every constituent should know that the decisions made in council impact on them," she said.

Members of the working party are councillors Raukawa-Tait, Charles Sturt and Tania Tapsell, and community representatives, former Rotorua Daily Post deputy editor and career journalist Jill Nicholas, member of parliament electorate agent Aroha Bray and retired Methodist minister Brian Eagle.

The working party will spend the next month-and-a-half soliciting input from the community before presenting a draft proposal to council in August.

Following this will be a public consultation process on the proposal, scheduled for September this year.

An objection and appeals process will then be held, before a final decision on the proposal is made in April 2016. Mr Sturt said the three-pronged nature of the review process meant that all submissions would carry equal weight.

"No individual group or individual can hijack the process, because there are three opportunities [to submit].

"There are checks and balances all the way through."

Under government legislation, councils are required to carry out reviews of their representation and voting arrangements every six years.

Issues under discussion in the review will include the number of elected councillors, the question of ward or "at-large" voting, and the potential for community boards.

Mrs Raukawa-Tait said wards for special interest communities, including demographic, socioeconomic or ethnic groups, would be considered by the review.

However, the council has already resolved not to introduce Maori wards in the city.

Mrs Nicholas, one of the working party's community representatives, said she was looking forward to getting input from Rotorua residents.

"We are going to be able to listen to the community ... it's the people's choice."

Mrs Chadwick stressed the importance of voices than other than politicians in the working party.

"People will relate differently to the working party if it was councillors only.

"The more you work within an organisation, the more you lose your connections that put you there, because you are so busy."

Your Choice - 2016 Election Review schedule

Phase 1 - Working Party will develop draft proposal to present to council using feedback from the community (until August 26)
Phase 2 - Opportunity for public to make submissions and attend council hearings on the proposal (September-October 2015). Council will then adopt final proposal on November 12.
Phase 3 - Objections/appeals process (November-December 2015) before proposal is sent to the Local Government Commission. The LGC must make a final determination on the proposal by April 10, 2016.