​Key outcomes from Ordinary Council meeting 16 September 2025

You can watch the recording of the meeting on Council’s YouTube channel.

Please note these are informal notes on the key outcomes from the meeting. The formal minutes and official record will be endorsed at the next council meeting.

Minutes and Committees – Council endorsed or received the minutes of several meetings and committees including the August Council meeting, the August Extra Ordinary council meeting, Risk and Assurance Committee meeting, Performance and Delivery Committee meeting, and received the draft minutes from the recent Coast Community Board meeting.

Papers also included the regular reports from the Chief Executive and Mayor.

The Mayor opened the meeting with an acknowledgement that it was the last meeting for the triennium and a thank you to all the councillors and staff for their contributions towards a successful three years. He noted that change was coming for the council with some councillors not standing in the current elections and two new Māori Wards for the district. He said that all the councillors recognised that it was a privilege to work on the community’s behalf. He also asked that everyone respect the community decision in October in the outcome to local government elections.

During discussion on the Mayoral report, the Mayor acknowledged the final meeting of the Ōpōtiki Marine Advisory Group (OMAG) and the Chair Cr Howe. Both the Mayor and Cr Howe recognised the important work the group completed over many years and also looked ahead at more work to be done - now in different ways by different groups such as the harbour working group and different industry, council, and iwi organisations.

Public forum – The Motu Trails Charitable Trust shared a presentation on the work of Trust over the past year on the various cycle trails across the district, particularly noting the importance of the different funders and the number of users across the different tracks and the economic benefits it brings to the district.

Council thanked the Trust for their great work and acknowledged the challenges both organisations face around funding, committing to keeping up the support for the benefit of the whole community.

You can watch this presentation from about 6.52 in the recording.

Delegations to the Chief Executive Officer During the Interim Election Period - during the election period, there is a window of time after results are declared and before the new members are sworn in when no one can act in their capacity as members of council. Therefore, this paper delegated the responsibilities during that period to the CEO so that business can continue in that time.

Dangerous, Affected and Insanitary Buildings Policy Renewal – All councils are required to have a policy to ensure that buildings are safe for their intended use and sets out how council will approach the issue – how council defines an unsafe or insanitary building, how they will be identified, and what actions council will take. The revised policy went out for consultation in August and September this year and the final policy came to council for adoption.

There was a wider discussion on known buildings around town that are unsightly or in a state of disrepair which make the town look unattractive. The staff member noted that under the policy, a ‘state of disrepair’ by itself isn’t enough, it must be ‘offensive or likely to be injurious to health.’ Councillors would like to see this actioned more in the future.

Building, Planning and Compliance Activities Annual Review 2024/25 - This report provides a review of the data collected for the 2024/25 financial year and in some instances how it compares to past performance including noting that while the there wasn’t a significant increase in the NUMBER of building consents, the VALUE of those consents was much higher (this is due to a higher proportion of Category 2 and 3 residential buildings that have a larger footprint and more complex building design).

Dog Control Policies and Practices Report 2024/25 – councils are required to report annually on dog control policies and practices. This report includes important figures like the annual number of impoundments, re-homing, number euthanised, and complaints.

One error was noted and will be corrected in the final report posted on the council website – on p71 the correct figure for ‘total number of dog-related service requests’ should have been 289 (the report mistakenly uses the figure 738 which is the total number of all animal complaints, not just dogs).

Coastguard Ōpōtiki Building Lease Update – Ōpōtiki Wharf Reserve – at an earlier council meeting this year, council resolved to grant Coastguard Ōpōtiki a 33-year lease, with a right of renewal for a further 33 years, on the area around the wharf. Subsequent legal advice noted that lease terms cannot exceed 35 years unless the land is subdivided. Therefore, this report came back to council with a changed resolution to proceed with the lease but without the renewal option.

Proposed Amendments to the Riskpool Trust Deed – You can read more about Riskpool here. This paper approved several changes to the Riskpool Trust Deed to align governing documents to best practice during this wind-down phase.

Public excluded business – council confirmed in-committee meeting minutes and workshop notes. Other matters discussed:

• Lease Department of Conservation – 70 Bridge Street
• Chief Executive’s Annual Performance Review and setting of 2025/2026 KPIs.