The role of councillors on community boards – where they find themselves limited in how they contribute – will be reviewed in Waipā.
Community board chairs Jo Davies-Colley (Cambridge), left, and Ange Holt (Te Awamutu & Kihikihi), right before this week’s meeting about their performances. Photo: Mary Anne Gill.
Councillors must choose between debating issues at community board or council level for fear of being censured by staff who warn them to declare a conflict of interest and be silent.
Bruce Thomas
Lou Brown
Te Awamutu-Kihikihi Community Board chair Ange Holt called out the practice at last week’s council Strategic Planning and Policy meeting, saying it often rendered councillors Lou Brown and Bruce Thomas ineffective.
She also underlined frustrations the board felt in trying to advocate for the community.
“What we are experiencing is that both our councillors do not take part at the community board table regarding anything that is going to a council meeting. They then do not speak on our behalf at the council table, otherwise they cannot vote,” Holt said.
Councillors Brown and Thomas sit on the community board in Te Awamutu – while Mike Montgomerie and Philip Coles are members of the Cambridge board.
Mike Montgomerie
Philip Coles
Holt called for a meeting with mayor Susan O’Regan, chief executive Steph O’Sullivan and council committee chairs to discuss the issue and come up with a way forward.
Montgomerie said he was looking forward to the meeting happening “and getting a result”.
“This whole conflict of interest things— I agree, the system from the outside seems… not right”.
He questioned the “slight hybrid” model with councillors on boards, a point Susan O’Regan echoed saying, as a councillor who previously sat on board, it was a “very odd place to sit”.
Holt said she understood the “why” behind the conflict of interest and how it worked – “but if we practice it to the letter of the law, there are times in a small community when it is like having a noose around your neck”.
Te Awamutu News 10 April 2025
The community board chair listed her frustrations in an at times emotional delivery, where she said the majority of board’s advocacy had been “dismissed, delayed or just ignored” and revealed she didn’t know of one board member who had signalled they planned to seek re-election in October.
She has yet to announce a decision, but a check by The News this week revealed her deputy Kane Titchener doesn’t plan to stand. Jill Taylor will seek another term. The News had not contacted Sally Whitaker at the time of going to press.
“When you have been elected to represent the interests of your community, it is a hard pill to swallow to know they believe you have their back, and you don’t deliver.
“To continually front up and say ‘sorry, we tried, we failed’, is frustrating, and at times, demoralising. This is our community, and we should have a say in what we want, not to settle for what someone else thinks is best for us.
“When you have people who are basically volunteers, they need to get something out of what they are doing, so they are inspired, feel valued, and know they have made a difference.”
Kihikihi Cycleway
She cited complaints about Kihikihi’s $8 million Te Ara Rimu cycleway as an example.
Susan O’Regan
“Three different documents referred to the pathway that was going out at Kihikihi as a shared pathway. At no point, until that was starting to be built, did we know that it actually wasn’t a shared pathway,” she said.
“We’re elected members, and our heads roll based on that. We’ve been elected to stick up for the things that we want, or we don’t want. Some of the angst that’s happened out there possibly could have been avoided.
O’Regan was surprised to hear how Holt was feeling.
“I really look forward to getting a broader grasp of what your concerns are and perhaps be able to bridge what you perceive as a gap between the community board and council,” O’Regan said. “It’s news to me that it seems to have fallen off a cliff from your perspective.”
Te Awamutu and Kihikihi Community Board 2022-2025, from left: Bruce Thomas, Kane Titchener, Ange Holt, Sally Whitaker, Lou Brown, Jill Taylor, John Wood.
Te Awamutu Community Board when Susan O’Regan was a member and councillor.
