While the dust has seemingly settled from this year’s local elections, media reports of division at the Waikato Regional Council (WRC) have continued to persist in recent weeks with allegations of ‘stacking’ regarding committee membership aimed at the Chairperson.
WRC Chairperson, Pamela Storey, has strongly denied any accusations of alleged stacking, claiming that the membership of the committees were a result of spending “time in workshops and conversations with councillors.”
Asked if the council was as dysfunctional as the press reports were implying she said, “I don't believe that it is at all.”
(Listen to the full interview below:)
“Obviously whenever you get a new group of people together there is the whole, forming storming, norming and understanding each other's different perspectives and there is a process you go through in that.”
Entering her second term as a Waikato constituency councillor, Pamela was appointed Chairwoman after the vote was tied between her and Cr Stu Kneebone with seven votes each - which resulted in her name being drawn out of a hat to determine the chair-to-be.
Pamela says that the first challenge for any new council is to establish the governance structure and that with eight new councillors coming onboard the new council took some extra time to discuss what the committees would need for the triennium ahead.
“As the chair I wanted to make sure that we took as long as we needed to get through that process and it was important that there were adequate provisions for workshops, individual discussions and discussions with the group, to establish what is a governance structure that is fit for purpose for this triennium and this council.’
As Chair, Pamela had proposed a structure and membership ahead of the council meeting that was held on Thursday, 24 November. While there was discussion on who should sit on each committee and some changes made, the 34 decisions for council appointments and committee memberships were all unanimous.
In response to claims by other councillors that Pamela had stacked the committee membership with her own supporters, Pamela reiterated that the council voted unanimously on the memberships of all committees.
The decisions around who would be nominated chair and deputy-chair of each committee were delegated to the committee membership to decide for themselves - a first for the Waikato Regional Council.
“From my perspective, it was important that those were committee decisions, we took a little bit of extra time and because of that extra time we are hoping that we are more comfortable with where we have landed,” said Pamela in regards to the appointment of the chair and deputy roles.
While Pamela is happy with the amount of time taken to develop the governance structure for the new council, she is keen to “get on with the work.” The WRC are currently reviewing their strategic priorities for the next triennium to look at some of the ‘bigger picture challenges’ ahead which will guide their priorities over the next few years.
Pamela says that she would personally like to see a strong voice for the Waikato region in response to national level reform. “I think it’s Important when change is proposed that the Waikato region has a strong voice in response so that Wellington gets a good view around the impacts - positive and negative.”
With a number of reforms coming through from the central government, including Resource Management Act and the Local Government Review, Pamela says that there are a number of submissions that will need to be made in a short time frame.
Pamela hopes to bring the new councillors up to speed on what has been happening so far adding that the reforms and reviews coming through are complex and there are challenges around making effective and informed submissions.
“There is certainly a sense of frustration,” said Pamela in response to the time frame required for the submissions.
“We want to be able to make informed and effective responses to these proposals and ensure that we have adequate time to absorb them,” she added.
“But I'm sure we’re all up to the task,” she laughs.
While the number and speed of the reforms coming through can be overwhelming, Pamela encourages community members to get in touch with your elected members to discuss the proposals and to have your say by making a submission.
Please note the deadline for submissions for the RMA reforms has now been extended February 5, 2023 (not January 30, 2023 as stated in the audio).