Council to explore improvement options

The council will implement decision-making and process enhancements after holding a workshop to clarify opportunities to improve its operations.

The decision was made during an Extraordinary Council Meeting on Friday called to consider agenda items remaining from a Wednesday 29 April council meeting that was adjourned early.

A key agenda item considered was the report Options to Strengthen Governance Assurance and Public Confidence. The report was tabled in response to recent public and media discussion raising concerns about council governance, and particularly the role of council committees. On 9 April 2026, the Hon Simon Watts, Minister of Local Government, wrote to Mayor Moko Tepania following requests his office had received for intervention at Far North District Council (FNDC). In his letter, Minister Watts advised he is satisfied that FNDC is discharging its functions under the Local Government Act and is conducting its governance appropriately.

Despite that assurance from the minister, the council considered options on Friday that would strengthen public confidence by providing visible, credible assurance that its processes are fair, lawful, transparent, and consistently applied, and that council decisions are made following robust deliberation and due process.

There were six options offered by the report:

1. commissioning an independent governance assurance review
2. appointing an independent observer
3. implementing an internal transparency and process improvement programme
4. requesting targeted external governance support,
5. publishing a public governance assurance and transparency dashboard,
6. maintaining the current arrangements.

Issues raised by councillors during a robust, 90-minute discussion ranged from the cost for ratepayers of appointing an independent observer to questioning whether concerns over governance were warranted.

Rather than adopt any of the six options provided by the report, councillors instead opted for an alternative motion to: Implement governance transparency and process enhancements subject to a workshop to understand opportunities for improvements of management, governance, delivery of functions or duties, needing resolution.

During the discussion, Kahika Tepania agreed there were myriad issues large and small within council operations that needed to be addressed. “Until we sit down as a governing body [and] has that discussion, and hear from staff themselves, then how are we going to understand the problem that needs fixing…”

The aim of the workshop will be to clarify governance issues and potential solutions with staff before implementing a programme of internal transparency and process improvements. Those solutions may include the six options provided by the report, as well as any others proposed by councillors.

Also discussed today was a report on Northland Inc’s Draft Statement of Intent. The meeting then went into public exclusion to discuss Far North Holdings Limited’s Draft Statement of Intent and a contract extension for the Hokianga Ferry Service. Councillors decided to extend the ferry contract for another two years.

You can watch a recording of the meeting (except items in public exclusion) on the FNDC Facebook page or the council’s YouTube channel.

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Image: The Extraordinary Council Meeting was held on Friday  1 May.