Agenda of Strategy and Policy Committee Workshop

Table of Contents

Public Excluded Session

The table below sets out the general subject of each paper to be considered while the public is excluded from the proceedings of this workshop, the reason for excluding the public, and the specific grounds under section 48(1) of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987 for excluding the public:

Item No.	Subject of each paper to be considered	Reason for excluding the public in relation to each paper	Grounds under Section 48(1) for excluding the public	When the paper can be released into the public
1	Draft Rotorua System Management Plan and Draft Regional Plan Provisions for Rotorua	Withholding the information is necessary to maintain the effective conduct of public affairs through the free and frank expression of opinions by or between or to members or officers or employees of any local authority, or any persons to whom section 2(5) applies, in the course of their duty.	48(1)(a)(i) Section 7 (2)(f)(i).	On the Chief Executive's approval.
2	Potential Specified Development Project (SDP) for the Tauranga Western Corridor - led by Kāinga Ora
3	Essential Freshwater Policy Programme: Timeline and Update

Informal Workshop Papers

1 Draft Rotorua System Management Plan and Draft Regional Plan Provisions for Rotorua

Attachment 1 - PC-11 Draft provisions - Rotorua - Preliminary Draft - Policy and Strategy Workshop 27 June 2023

Attachment 2 - Ngā Wai Ariki o Rotorua Geothermal System Management Plan - working draft mockup

2 Potential Specified Development Project (SDP) for the Tauranga Western Corridor - led by Kāinga Ora

Attachment 1 - Summary slides on Western Coridor SDP - Kainga Ora 12-06-23

The workshop will adjourn at the conclusion of Item 2 and reconvene in Public Excluded at 1.00pm on Friday, 30 June 2023

Friday, 30 June 2023 – 1.00pm (Public Excluded continued)

3 Essential Freshwater Policy Programme: Timeline and Update

Attachment 1 - Essential Freshwater Policy Programme: Councillor Briefings & Meeting Timeline 2023

Open Session

Informal Workshop Papers

4 Significance and Engagement Policy Review 4

Attachment 1 - BOPRC Significance and Engagement Policy 2018 10

Attachment 2 - Sections of the LGA 2002 referenced in this report 18

Attachment 3 - Examples of Thresholds for determining significance from other Councils 23


Informal Workshop Paper
To:	Strategy and Policy Committee Workshop
	27 June 2023
From:	Olive McVicker, Corporate Performance Team Lead; Graeme Howard, Corporate Planning Lead; Alicia Burningham, Corporate Planner; Stephanie Macdonald, Community Engagement Team Leader and Mark Le Comte, Principal Advisor, Finance
	Mat Taylor, General Manager, Corporate

Significance and Engagement Policy Review

1. Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to outline the legislative requirements for the Significance and Engagement Policy (SEP) and seek guidance from Councillors on a proposed review of the Policy.

2. Guidance Sought from Councillors

The following guidance is sought from Councillors:

1. Whether to review the Significance and Engagement Policy.

2. Discuss and provide feedback on the key focus areas for the review.

3. Note the potential requirement for public consultation on any update to the Policy.

3. Introduction

Council is required to have a Significance and Engagement Policy (SEP) under section 76AA of the Local Government Act 2002 (LGA). The SEP sets out Council’s approach to identifying the significance of decisions and our broad approach to engaging with the community. The SEP is necessarily broad in scope as it is relevant to the process followed by all projects and initiatives at every level across the organisation.

The SEP is reviewed every three years with the timing aligned to the development of the Long Term Plan. The current SEP was adopted as part of the LTP 2018-2028.No changes were made to the policy during the LTP 2021-2031 review and the unchanged policy was adopted with the LTP 2021-2031. The current SEP and a copy of sections of the LGA referenced in this report, including section 76AA, are attached to this report as appendix 1 & 2.

3.1 Purpose of the Significance and Engagement Policy

The purpose of the SEP is set out under section 76AA of the LGA. On reviewing Council’s SEP together with several policies from other Councils, staff have identified four theme areas across the policies and to aid discussion at this workshop, staff recommend Councillors focus discussion around these four areas as listed below.

· Determining significance - Enable Council and its communities to identify the degree of significance attached to issues, proposals, assets, decisions, and activities.

· Council’s approach to engaging with our community – encompasses legislative requirements as per the LGA and provides clarity about how and when communities can expect to be engaged in Council’s decision-making process.

· Council’s approach to engaging with Māori - encompasses legislative requirements as per the LGA including requirements under s77, s81 as well as Council’s focus on taking a partnership approach to how we operate and work with Māori.

· Strategic Assets – a list of Council’s Strategic Assets.

The following sections provide brief information on each area together with prompts for discussion.

3.1.1 Determining significance

There are many factors that may influence the significance of a decision and what this means for how we engage with our community. The current policy has embedded within it the principles to guide this determination, these are:

· The more significant an issue is, the greater the need for community engagement.

· It is important for Council to engage with our community to ensure we understand the views of those likely to be affected by, or who have an interest in a decision.

· Council will apply a transparent and consistent approach to engagement.

Decisions that have high significance

Council’s current approach to determining significance includes the use of thresholds and criteria for what is deemed high significance. This effectively creates a back stop where certain decisions will automatically trigger the requirement for certain steps to occur before the decision is taken. This includes requiring Council to consider reasonably practicable options and community views and preferences in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the LGA before determining a course of action, which would usually be achieved by undertaking a Special Consultative Procedure under s83 of the Act.

The current thresholds include a financial threshold and set a high bar for establishing a high level of significance. These are set out in table 1 below.

Table 1: Thresholds for high significance in the current BOPRC SEP.

Criteria	Threshold	Example
Financial cost of the decision.	It involves unbudgeted expenditure exceeding 10% of Council’s total expenditure for the year.	Councils 2022/23 annual budget was approximately $209 million, therefore a decision that had unbudgeted expenditure of over $20.9 million in one year would trigger this threshold.
Likely effect on Council’s ability to fulfil its statutory functions or perform its statutory roles.	It potentially adversely affects Council’s ability to fulfil its statutory functions or roles under any enactment.	If Council were to consider a potential sale or transfer of some council Flood Control assets (also a strategic asset) resulting in a reduction in Level of Service.
Likely impact of the decision on the community.	There are major potential impacts on the environmental, social, economic or cultural interests of most of the Bay of Plenty community.	If Council were to consider the establishment of a Regional Infrastructure Fund (such as was consulted on circa 2012).

Staff have reviewed a number of other councils SEP. Of those reviewed, most take a similar approach to determining high significance using thresholds often including a financial threshold. These are summarised in Appendix 3.

Other mandatory consultation

In addition to decisions that trigger a threshold above, there are requirements under a variety of legislation that Council operates under that will require mandatory consultation.

Decisions that are not high significance

If a decision does not exceed any of the above thresholds, Council is able to tailor its decision-making process on a case-by-case basis. This does not mean Council does not have to or will not engage with the community, but it does provide more flexibility in its approach.

Suggested questions for Councillors to consider

· Are Councillors comfortable with the current approach to determining significance as outlined in the current SEP?

· Are the current thresholds set at the appropriate level? Would Councillors like staff to explore some alternative thresholds or levels and bring back to Council.

· Would Councillors like to see any changes in relation to how Council determines the significance of decisions?

3.1.2 Councils approach to engaging with our community

The current SEP policy sets out Council’s core approach to engaging with communities and affirms Council’s use of a customised version of the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) model part of the model is shown below.

The policy also provides information about the extent of expected public engagement and the form of engagement required (i.e. what tools will be used to suit the particular community) and provides examples of the differing levels of engagement that might be considered appropriate, the types of tools associated with each level and the timing generally associated with these types of decisions/levels of engagement.

The policy is intentional in setting the broad framework for engagement rather than being too prescriptive. This is to strike a balance between providing clear guidance to the community on what engagement they can expect, while retaining the flexibility to enable new engagement approaches to be used.

· Are Councillors comfortable with the broad approach to engagement outlined in the current policy?

· What changes would Councillors like to see in how Council engages with the community when making decisions?

· While legislation sets minimum standards, would council like to see engagement further to the right on the spectrum where appropriate?

· Would Councillors like there be a greater emphasis to reduce barriers to participation in engagement processes?

3.1.3 Councils approach to engaging with Māori

The current SEP acknowledges the unique status of Māori and that Council will utilise a range of different mechanisms to engage with the wider Māori community and ensure their views are appropriately represented in the decision-making process. The policy also states Council is committed to providing relevant information in a suitable format and through suitable forums to inform Māori contribution and improve their access to Council’s engagement and decision-making processes.

The SEP also reinforces that, when engaging with Māori across the region, Treaty of Waitangi settlements should be recognised. In particular those specific mechanisms identified such as co-governance agreements, co-management, statutory acknowledgement, protocols, joint management agreements, memorandum of understanding or any other similar high level agreement. Council should also consider the enhanced role that Māori will have by virtue of the amendments made to the Resource Management Act 1991, including providing for iwi to invite councils into Mana Whakahono a Rohe/Iwi Participation Agreements.

Suggested questions for Councillors to consider

· Are Councillors comfortable with the broad approach to engagement outlined in the current policy?

· What changes would Councillors like to see in the policy in relation to how Council engages with Māori when making decisions?

· Is there an opportunity to strengthen focus around partnering with Māori, including the role of co-governance entities?

· Should we include a list of co-governance bodies, MOUs, agreements etc or point to this information e.g. on a website?

3.1.4 List of Strategic Assets

Section 76AA(3) of the LGA 2002 requires a significance and engagement policy to list the assets considered by Council to be strategic assets as defined in section 5 of the LGA (Appendix 1).

The following is the list of assets or group of assets included in the current SEP that BOPRC needs to retain, if it is to maintain its capacity to achieve or promote any outcome that it determines to be important to the current or future wellbeing of the community. The current strategic assets are:

· Council’s shareholding in Quayside Holdings Limited.

· Council’s majority shareholding in Port of Tauranga Limited, which is held through Quayside Holdings Limited.

· Council’s Flood Protection and Drainage Schemes.

Suggested questions for Councillors to consider

Are there any new potential assets Council would like to consider adding e.g. assets that Council purchases or owns that contribute to Councils Carbon zero targets e.g. Pāpāmoa Hills Regional Park, Brain property for the Kaituna, the Spratt Farm transitioning into Wetlands.

3.2 Consultation on the Significance and Engagement Policy

Under section 76 AA (5) of the LGA, when amending or adopting a SEP, Council must consult in accordance with section 82 of the LGA unless it considers on reasonable grounds that it has sufficient information about community interests and preferences to enable the purpose of this policy to be achieved.

Council consulted on the original SEP in 2014 and an update in 2015. No substantive feedback was received through these consultations. In 2017, Council decided not to consult on the updated SEP.

Once Council have an opportunity to consider a revised SEP, staff will seek Council guidance in relation to consultation options, we anticipate that this will be at a future Council workshop.

4. Next Steps

Based on guidance from Councillors at this workshop, staff will undertake a review of the current SEP and bring information back, together with an updated SEP for consideration at a future Strategy and Policy workshop, currently proposed for September 2023.

Attachments

Attachment 1 - BOPRC Significance and Engagement Policy 2018 ⇩

Attachment 2 - Sections of the LGA 2002 referenced in this report ⇩

Attachment 3 - Examples of Thresholds for determining significance from other Councils ⇩