Hamilton City Council recommends community committees to next council

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In an effort to encourage more inclusive community engagement, current Hamilton City councillors will recommend the establishment of two community committees to the next council.

There is no set definition of what community committees are, but they are usually contracted by a council to represent a part of the community and deal with local issues.

The recommendation comes after the Local Government Commission turned down a proposal from Community Waikato to establish community boards in Hamilton.

The role of a community board is similar to a community committee, but the boards are usually elected. Waikato District Council is an example of a local authority that has both, community committees and community boards.

Hamilton Mayor Paula Southgate says the current council and staff already connect with the community a lot.

"A 160 per cent increase in submissions on the Long-Term Plan is testament to that. But increasing engagement with Hamiltonians is a balancing act of costs and resources. This trial continues our efforts to find new ways of strengthening our community's voice."

The council recommends that the next council establishes two committees on a trial basis with members being determined through a combination of election and appointment.

The council also recommends a hui (meeting) with residents and key stakeholders of the community, to discuss how committees would work best for them.

The new council's role, if it decides to establish the committees, would be to support the committees by taking care of the election and appointment of committee members, facilitating the first meeting and providing training, information and advice.

However, the final decision on whether to follow the recommendation and any details of the scope and structure of the committees will be up to the incoming council in October.

The proposal of introducing community-based committees was first put forward last year after the current council undertook a representation review.

Some community groups, including Community Waikato, were then advocating to establish community boards which are more formally structured and governed by legislation.

Community Waikato argued that boards would increase community engagement with the council and foster grassroots democracy, whereas community committees held no power.

The current council decided not to establish community boards and instead look at introducing community committees.

As part of the local government representation review which signed off the establishment of two Māori ward seats, Community Waikato put forward an appeal to the Local Government Commission to establish community boards.

The commission denied the appeal.