Every six years, we get a chance to look at, and perhaps make changes to, the way that council is structured at a governance level. This year is one of those years.

That’s why we are wanting to know what you think about the way we do things. 

For instance, do we have the right number of councillors, or the right number of community boards? 

Should the current Ward boundaries be changed, should we have Māori Wards and should the spelling of Maniototo be changed to Māniatoto in terms of the name of the Ward and the community board?

What we hear from this survey will inform what we will the come back to the community with as a proposal. 

The law around Representation Reviews, which is the official name for this process, states that council must prepare its one proposal and the community can then say yes or no to it, which council then considers before making its formal decision on what to go back to the Local Government Commission with. 

In a “normal” consultation, we would usually give a number of options in the final consultation document, but because of the peculiar law on this, it’s a good old Kiwi “yeah na” binary choice at the end, which is why it’s so important we get your input into the document now, and approval or disapproval of the final product later.

If you are not signed up to the Let’s Talk platform we use for a lot of our engagement, there is a bit of palaver at the start involving filling in some of your details. 

I think that puts a lot of people off, but that information is really important to decision makers like me in terms of weighing up the response we get. 

For instance, I’m probably going to take more notice of a submission from Roxburgh than I am one from Rome. 

It doesn’t mean I wouldn’t take any notice of the one from Rome, it's all about the weight applied. 

And no, I haven’t seen a submission from Rome, but you would be surprised how many people with no connection to our area do want a say in how we do things.

So please, give us a few minutes of your time and let us know you’re thoughts, and that includes if you are perfectly happy with how things are because that’s important for us to know too. 

The survey can be found at Representation Review 2024 | Let’s Talk Central Otago and closes on 25 February.

Every six years councils review how well people and communities are represented.

A representation review addresses the total number of elected members and the way they are elected.

The last representation review in Central Otago was in 2018.

We currently have 28 elected members, including the mayor (1), councillors (11) and community board members (16). Closes 25 February.

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