Submissions prompt changes

Rotorua mayor Steve Chadwick

Rotorua mayor Steve Chadwick says last minute changes to the council's Te Arawa Partnership Proposal could be the compromise the community is looking for.

But opponents of the proposal say the changes are merely symbolic and still give disproportionate power to Te Arawa and remain "undemocratic", with Rotorua Pro-Democracy Society secretary Reynold Macpherson saying "the unexpected brutality of the current regime's political style in recent months has ushered in a crude tyranny that many feel obliged to resist, in order to defend their birth right of democracy."

Pro-Democracy Society secretary Reynold Macpherson

Members of the Rotorua Lakes Council will meet from 9.30am tomorrow, either in the Council Chamber or the much larger Civic Theatre - due to the large numbers of people expected to attend the meeting.

Two major changes to the proposal were signalled in the agenda for the extraordinary council meeting, set down to make the final decision on the controversial proposal aimed at giving Maori - in particular Te Arawa - a greater voice on council.

The proposal has seen huge public outcry and resulted in a record 1890 submissions being sent to the council by the public, with about 200 people presenting their submissions in person during five days of hearings.

The Rotorua Lakes Council's Strategy and Partnerships group manager Jean-Paul Gaston outlined the changes in his agenda report to councillors.

The first change would see the removal of the authority for the council's two main governance committees - Strategy Policy & Finance and Operations & Monitoring - to make binding resolutions on behalf of the council. The committees would only be allowed to make recommendations to the council, which would then make the final decision.

The second major change would see Te Arawa elect, instead of appoint, its own board which would then nominate two people to sit on each of the council's two main committees. The council would be able to veto those nominations if it did not think the nominees would be suitable for their positions.

Previously, the proposal would have seen Te Arawa appoint its own board of up to 14 members and have two of those members sit, with full voting rights, on the council's two main committees.

Mrs Chadwick said the changes were a good workable compromise and councillors and council staff had understood from the submission process that a compromise needed to be made in this matter.

"This also makes sure that the final decision-making powers of the council rest with the elected members only."

She said she found Mr Macpherson's and the society's comments describing her leadership as a "crude tyranny" disappointing and unnecessarily dramatic.

Mr Macpherson said if the modified proposal was passed the society would undertake a legal challenge.

"If a majority of councillors follow the mayor's politically suicidal lead, the society will have two main options - a judicial review targeting the illegality of the model and the corruption of the Special Consultative Procedure, and democratic regime change."

Members of Te Arawa have a hikoi (march) planned for tomorrow from Tepapaiouru Marae, at Ohinemutu, to the council building in time for the start of the meeting.

The extraordinary meeting of the Rotorua Lakes Council will start at 9.30am and is open to the public.

-The agenda can be found online at www.rdc.govt.nz.