No Community Engagement
Time for Change - The community are poorly informed about the development of the city, restricted by time to provide positive input to council plans and when they do their opinion is ignored.
Issue
Community Exclusion from in-depth Council discussions
No method for Community to advance city improvements or problems
Evidence
Community Comment
The Hamilton City Council is currently governed by a Ward system, with multiple Councilor’s elected from each Ward. This structure has led to uneven representation, fragmented decision-making, and an over-emphasis on solving priorities that represent non-core areas at the expense of essential city-wide services. Democratic processes, such as consultation, have been improperly managed leading to decisions that do not reflect what the community wants an appropriate cost benefit tradeoff for Hamiltonians.?
Concerned Citizen
Concern that Council decisions not made in the best interest of all Residents and Ratepayers.
Concerned Citizen
A bi-annual fully transparent review of spending against agreed limits on overheads, including but not limited to PR & Communications, Lawyers and Consultants. This would be undertaken by independent University and community experts.
Concerned Citizen
All Supply agreements (including preferred agreements) should be set for a maximum of 3 years with an annual review clause that tests the agreed deliverables and conditions against the current market.
Concerned Citizen
Elected Members personal involvement, as a beneficiary of Trusts and their immediate family must declare Conflicts of Interest (as defined by Audit NZ) and their reason(s) and agree to publicly notifying these conflicts on the Council website prior to decisions being made. Where a conflict of interest is declared they cannot vote on that issue.