Nelson has been divvied up between the city’s councillors to try and ensure all residents are represented.
As part of Mayor Nick Smith’s updated council structure for the next three years, most councillors have been made liaisons for specific areas of the community.
In most cases, these are geographic areas, but others will be liaisons for certain sectors of the city.
Last term, Nelson City Council appointed liaison councillors for areas of the community that Nick felt were underrepresented: James Hodgson for Atawhai, Campbell Rollo for Tāhunanui, and Aaron Stallard for Nelson North.
Matty Anderson was also appointed the liaison for Pacific and ethnic communities.
“I’ve had very positive feedback from the community and the way in which that worked,” Nick says.
He spoke to the expanded liaison roles at the council’s meeting on Thursday, with almost every councillor getting appointed to a specific area.
Representing the full breadth of the city was “actually really hard”, Nick says.
“The risk if we don’t coordinate it is that we leave gaps of some people not being heard, or that we overlap in our work.”
Under the new liaison structure, Campbell has kept Tāhunanui, and James has kept Atawhai while also being given the Wood.
Aaron has been shifted to Nelson East, while Lisa Austin has taken up his North Nelson role.
Matty will pick up Nelson South, Trudie Brand will have Stoke, Mel Courtney will take the Port Hills, and Sarah Kerby was given the Nayland-Monaco area.
Outside of geography, Kahu Paki Paki will be the liaison for local Māori, Matty will keep his Pacific and ethnic communities role as well as, separately, taking on social services, Aaron will pick up environmental groups, while Sarah and Campbell will share sports to ensure they deliver for both men and women.
Certain industries will also gain liaison councillors, with Lisa picking up tourism and hospitality, Mel assigned to retail and commerce, Kahu appointed to building and construction, and Nigel Skeggs taking on the marine and manufacturing sectors.
Nelson’s central city and port were not assigned a liaison as the areas already had oversight through deputy mayor Pete Rainey’s city revitalisation taskforce, as well as Mel’s retail and commerce, and Nigel’s marine sector liaison roles.
Tim Skinner was the only elected member, besides the mayor and deputy mayor, who was not appointed to a liaison area.
He told Local Democracy Reporting that he would be too busy to take on a liaison role as he would be chair of the new delivery committee, which had “pretty much every project” in its purview, and would be travelling often as the council’s Local Government New Zealand representative.
Nick says liaison councillors are meant to be the “eyes and ears” for their respective areas, the “first point of call” for residents and organisations from their area, and will support staff with relevant engagement and communications.
However, the liaisons are not exclusive, and councillors can still engage with any resident, group, or business across the city.
There was also a wider governance shake-up, with Nick introducing some additional committees after he disbanded most when he initially became mayor last term. In addition to the audit, risk, and finance committee, three other committees were established to ensure greater oversight of council activities.
They were Tim’s delivery committee, the customer experience committee, chaired by Trudie, and the strategy and planning committee, chaired by James.
“We need more opportunities for elected members to be able to scrutinise and be satisfied on the delivery,” Nick says.
With trimmed-down membership, these new oversight committees only have the power to recommend decisions to the full council rather than make their own decisions, and will meet three times a year.
Aaron, who ran against Nick for mayor, had campaigned on a return to a standing committee structure. He told Local Democracy Reporting that despite the committees increasing oversight, there was still a “democratic deficit” around the council chamber and a lack of transparency.
The external Remuneration Authority allocated $673,582 for all councillors’ salaries until the end of the financial year. The deputy mayor will get a pay of $70,951 while the councillors will each take home $54,785. The mayor’s salary, as determined by legislation, is $172,013.
