Agenda of Regional Council - Tuesday, 13 September 2022


Informal Workshop Paper
To:	Regional Council
	13 September 2022
From:	Yvonne Tatton, Governance Manager
	Fiona McTavish, Chief Executive

Review of 2019-2022 BOPRC Governance Structure

Purpose

To seek feedback and direction from Councillors on what has worked well and what improvements could be made for the committee structure for the new triennial.

Guidance Sought from Councillors

At the workshop Councillors will be asked for their views on:

· which committees under the current Governance Structure work well,

· which require amending and why, and

· what additional committees are required to ensure the decision-making structure is fit for purpose for the next triennium to meet the changing operating environment.

Key Discussion Points

Attachment A identifies the BOPRC’s current Governance Structure and an analysis of how this compares to other regional councils’ structures.

The Future for Local Government Review Panel have identified that critical challenges facing local government require a move beyond current structures and siloes, creating a system approach to local governance that supports greater coordination, alignment and collaboration between the various players.

Bearing this in mind there is an opportunity to incorporate incremental changes into the governance structure to support such alignment and collaboration.

The Chief Executive will present further information on the following ideas below at the workshop for consideration.

3.1 Ideas for consideration

3.1.1 Strategic leadership/partnership joint committee

Many other regional councils have some form of regional strategic leadership/partnership joint committee. Strategic issues that affect all councils across the region (e.g. climate change, economic development, spatial planning) provide a platform for all councils to work collaboratively within a cohesive decision-making framework. This joint committee would be a forerunner to the joint committees proposed in the Resource Management (RM) reforms.

3.1.2 Planning Committee with iwi membership

A Planning Committee with BOPRC Councillors and Māori leaders, potentially co-governance chairs and iwi representatives where there aren’t yet co-governance forums. This joint planning committee would also be a forerunner to the RM reforms in that it will eventually morph into a subcommittee to the joint committee that provides the “statement of environmental outcomes”. It would be the decision-making governance entity for future regional plans until such time as the RM reforms are established. Both Hawkes Bay and Greater Wellington have these planning committees now via Treaty settlements in their rohe.

There would be implications regarding the roles for the current Strategy and Policy Committee and Komiti Māori if a Planning Committee such as this was considered.

3.1.3 Financial delegations for committees

Financial delegations associated with approved committee work programmes, approved through the Annual/Long Term Plans could be included in the committee’s terms of reference.

Mat Taylor, General Manager Corporate will provide more detail at the workshop on how this might strengthen decision-making.

3.1.4 General administrative improvements

This will include discussion on the timing and programming of meetings and other such matters that Councillors consider where improvements could be made

Next Steps

Direction from this workshop will be included in the proposed committee structure recommendations to the incoming Council for the next triennial.

Attachments

Attachment 1 - Governance Structure Review 2022 Background Information ⇩