Public Forums Could Be ‘Weaponised’ – Mayor

Tuesday, 23 July 2024, 8:47 pm
Article: Laura Smith - Local Democracy Reporter

Rotorua’s council could soon allow public speakers at the start of meetings for the first time in at least 24 years - but Rotorua’s mayor says she is concerned they could be “weaponised” or used by people to “have a rant”.

Rotorua Lakes councillor Robert Lee raised the idea of establishing public forums at a June meeting and elected members asked chief executive Andrew Moraes to bring a paper to the council exploring the idea.

On Wednesday the council will decide whether to enable the public to speak to them in formal meetings by adding a forum to the order of business in agendas.

It was not clear if the council had ever had public forums, with staff reporting they had checked 24 years of agendas and found none.

“It appears that Rotorua Lakes Council has never hosted public forums,” the meeting agenda advises.

Generally, forums allocated up to 30 minutes for members of the public to speak to councillors about issues not necessarily related to anything on the meeting agenda.

Requests to speak must be made to the chief executive, or their delegate, at least one day before the meeting, but the meeting chairperson could waive this requirement. Requests needed to outline the topic and speakers generally had five minutes each.

Councillors could ask questions but there could be no debate or decisions unless it related to something on the agenda.

The chairperson had discretion to decline to hear a speaker or to end a presentation at any time for reasons such as being repetitious, disrespectful or offensive; repeating views of an earlier speaker; criticising staff or elected members; or having previously spoken on the same issue.

If the topic was subject to legal proceedings it could also be stopped or declined.

Wednesday’s meeting agenda noted 85% of councils had some form of public forum.

“Across local government, there is mixed opinion as to the success and/or value of the public forum,” the report said.

“It appears that Rotorua Lakes Council has never hosted public forums. A review of agendas dating back to 2000 show no such public forum on any agenda.”

Lee said in June that public forums would help make the council accessible to the community. He wanted them added to committee meetings as well as full-council meetings.

His request was seconded by Lani Kereopa.

Council chief executive Andrew Moraes was previously at Taupō District Council and said in his 18 months there he believed one person presented in a public forum. The more popular avenue of reaching councillors was via petitions, “as we often see here”.

In the June meeting, Mayor Tania Tapsell said having more detail on the proposal would enable elected members to debate its merits and risks.

“While I am incredibly supportive of our public having the opportunity to partake in our processes… we do have very good opportunities for engagement,” she said.

Tapsell listed consultation for decisions such as the museum restoration, Rotorua Lakefront and long-term plan, as well as petitions.

She said public forums were “free and open” and there was “a real risk” they could be “weaponised”.

Tapsell said forums can be used to “come here and have a rant” about individual or personal issues that can be addressed through requests for service.

She said she supported accessibility, but a 9.30am Wednesday slot to speak was not accessible to everyone.

Councillor Don Paterson saw it differently.

“Having been somebody who’s been on the other side of the fence, and found it very frustrating to communicate with council - and the whole process of putting together a petition, working your ass off to get signatures - it’s very stressful and a lot of people find that daunting. Too daunting, they stay home, they don’t say anything.

“I believe a community forum option would give people a chance, who are genuine… we need to give people an opportunity to come and tell us what really bothers them.”

He said the process could “weed out” those just there to “tyre-kick”.

Former Rotorua resident Justin Adams is a long-time advocate for transparent council processes.

Adams said public forums were “an inalienable right” for ratepayers to raise issues to those voted in to serve them.

“Rotorua Lakes Council is one of the only councils in the country not to have public forums and if the argument against it is people will come and rant maybe the councillors should pay more attention to what is occurring within the council organisation that is upsetting the public that needs rectifying.”

In his view, councillors against public forums would be “voting against democracy” and the system and people that elected them. Elected members needed to be reminded that they were elected to represent the public, he said.

In response, Tapsell said: “Democracy is important, and authentic and meaningful engagement with our community is a key priority of this council.”

Public forums were “only one of many ways communities can engage with their councils”, and Tapsell said they had mixed results elsewhere.

Petitions required other support before they came to the council, she said, and residents could contact councillors directly with concerns, “which they do, and we address these as best as possible”.

“I’m supportive of the public having input into council processes and this new council significantly improved our processes and transparency by holding meetings and workshops in public and ensuring agendas are published publicly one week in advance of meetings.”

She said while she was not sure public forums were needed, she looked forward to discussing on Wednesday what further value they might add.

Local Democracy Reporting contacted former mayor Kevin Winters for his views on public forums. He was Rotorua’s mayor from 2004 to 2013 and is a current Bay of Plenty Regional Council elected member.

- LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.

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