Councillors have plans to keep up community engagement
From door-knocking to social media to “carving up” the wards, West Ward council candidates have plans to keep engaging with the community.
Councillors are elected by the people, for the people, yet ratepayers often complain elected members are out of touch with what their city wants.
Anaru Terry, a 28-year-old youth worker from the West Ward, said he wanted to see more of councillors in the community, and challenged candidates to knock on a few doors, and say “Hey, I’m running for council. Do you know what I do?”
The Waikato Independent found out how candidates planned to keep in touch with the people of the West Ward.
Businessman and first-time candidate Andrew King said councillors were accessible by phone if citizens wanted to contact them, but Hamilton residents had told him they did not see much of councillors once the campaign period ended.
So Mr King has a personal plan to combat this if elected – keep door knocking.
“Over the three-year period that you’re in, it wouldn’t hurt to go out and just knock on people’s doors, give them one of your council cards, just introduce yourself and say ‘Look, here’s my card, here’s my phone number. You can ring me if you want to discuss anything.’”
For incumbent West Ward councillor Angela O’Leary, keeping in touch with the community means she has the right people in her contact book when she needs to get a handle on an issue.
She connects through social media, attends as many community events as she can, and gets out to discuss issues raised with her by community members.
“Even though it’s busy, I find plenty of opportunities to actually do that,” she said. “Being a councillor is about connecting people, and relationships.”
And chartered accountant standing for West Ward Peter Findlay said councillors engaging with community was a part of “the fabric of our society”, but some would do that more than others.
“I’m going to be strong on [finances and council processes] so I’m not going to be able to do everything. So it’s a case of sharing the load and the councillors being satisfied that – if they can’t be direct participants themselves – they’re being properly represented in community matters.”
However, he thought the wards could be further “carved up” so councillors could each be assigned a focus area, to create stronger relationships.
