24 October 2023
Media: Local Democracy Reporter
Topic: Ombudsman findings on council workshops
Enquiry
Have received the chief ombudsmen's findings and wanted to offer the opportunity for the mayor to respond to anything in it. Have attached.
Also have some specific points for response:
He said the current council had moved to greater openness by advertising forums held, but said they were still held out of the view of the public.
“I am not convinced by arguments that forums should be closed in order that elected members can feel more free to ask naïve questions – they are elected, and must be expected, to deal with appropriate levels of scrutiny."
“In a meeting with me, the chief executive said that the council had changed its terminology around what had, in previous triennia, been called ‘workshops’.
He believed the change in word was not accompanied by much change in the way they were conducted, however.
He called closed-door workshops an ingrained aspect of the council’s culture.
“At the suggestion that forums could be open to the public to help manage public perceptions of the council’s openness, the former mayor’s response, in a meeting with my investigators, was ‘absolutely no way.’
“This indicates a history of opposition to opening forums to the public and—based on the practices employed so far in the current triennium— that culture continued to prevail.”
While noting the pool of respondents to a public survey was small at 88, Boshier said feedback for the council was overwhelmingly negative.
He said perceptions expressed by council staff and members of the public during his investigation left him “deeply concerned about the council’s commitment to conducting its business with openness and transparency”.
Any other comment?
How does the mayor see the council's approach to transparency?
Has this changed at all and how does she see it going forward?
Response
The reporter was referred to the statements on the RLC website (HERE)
Mayor Tapsell also participated in a phone interview with the reporter and highlighted that Council is in a significantly different place now from when these comments were made, that we have new leadership (new Mayor and Council, and soon to have a new CE), and that Council is committed to ensuring transparency and accountability to the public as much as possible in regards to their decision-making.
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Media: NewsHub
Topic: Rotorua hosting cyclone-affected families
Enquiry
Comment was sought from Mayor Tapsell for a story about 100 cyclone-affected families hosted in Rotorua.
Response
View the Newshub piece at this link: 100 families affected by Cyclone Gabrielle enjoy free break courtesy of Rotorua businesses | Newshub
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Media: The Platform
Topic: Mayor Tapsell's first year as mayor
Enquiry
Independent online media outlet The Platform sought an interview with Mayor Tapsell to discuss her first year – the challenges, wins and what's still to be sorted.
Response
Listen to the interview at this link: Tania Tapsell on tackling Rotorua's emergency housing crisis | The Platform
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Media: TVNZ - Breakfast Show
Topic: Rough sleepers
Enquiry
Getting in touch about this story: https://www.teaonews.co.nz/2023/10/24/rotorua-council-and-police-plan-to-trespass-homeless-living-in-reserves/
Is the mayor or someone else at council available to come on Breakfast tomorrow to discuss?
Keen for someone who can talk about the decision-making here - that's why I thought the mayor might be best.
We can't say exactly what questions will be asked as the presenter may think of their own during the discussion and we like it to be conversational, however some things we'd like to know are: do you have numbers on how many homeless people have been using parks, what work has gone into helping them out, will they be allowed access to the park at all, has this been done before, etc? (I understand other regions have also done similar)
Response
From Mayor Tapsell’s office:
Thank you for your enquiry and for offering Mayor Tapsell this interview.
However due to this being an operational matter that is not new to our council, and refers to a very small number of rough sleepers, we don’t believe an interview is necessary and Mayor Tapsell politely declines in this instance.
Thank you for checking though and the Mayor is happy to consider future interviews that may arise.
From the RLC organisation:
We politely decline on this occasion. This is not new and not unique to Rotorua, as you have alluded to in mentioning ‘other regions’.
Please feel free to use any/all of the information we provided to the Local Democracy Reporter which you’ll find at this link on our website: 19 October 2023 - Rotorua Lakes Council
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Media: Radio NZ
Topic: Ombudsman findings on council workshops
Enquiry
RNZ political reporter sought to interview Interim CE Gina Rangi or Mayor Tania Tapsell for a pre-recorded interview responding to the Chief Ombudsman's report into council workshops. I note in the council's PR, it says some recommendations have already been implemented, while the council disagrees with some of the other findings, and was hoping to learn a bit more about which areas those are.
Response
Mayor Tapsell agreed to do an interview and arrangements for a pre-recording this evening were made.