Hamilton City Council Changes Committee Structure

Hamilton City Council has reconfigured its committee structure to increase focus on
setting strategy and policy and to deal with Council business more efficiently.

At its meeting today, Council unanimously agreed to the formation of four committees:
Strategy and Policy, Finance and Monitoring, Operations and Activity Performance, and
Statutory Management.

The revised Committee structure will come into effect in August, and will ensure more
visibility relating to Council’s complex $285 million business, as well as more accurate
and timely reporting of decisions and operational activity.

Several Council subcommittees will be dissolved, with work undertaken by those
subcommittees absorbed into either working groups, or the four committees. The
working groups will operate within defined timeframes, dependent on their scope of
work.

Mayor Julie Hardaker said the new committee structure moved away from traditional
Council governance models that aligned to activities, to a more acountable system
aligned with Council functions. It would also mean new reporting methods relating to
financial matters, projects and organisational risks will be provided to Council, along
with a new overall reporting template. The review of reporting mechanisms was already
underway and would be finalised in the coming month.

“This is a new level of governance for us. The new committee structure takes a
pragmatic, modern and foward-thinking approach to the function of Council by
focussing on the governance role of Council. It is Council’s role to set direction through
strategy and policy and hold the organisation accountable for delivery of the decisions
Council makes,” said Mayor Hardaker. “I am very pleased Council has unanimously
endorsed my recommendations and I am excited by how it will function. ”

The new committees will be chaired by Councillor Marijke Westphal (Strategy and
Policy), Councillor Dave Macpherson (Finance and Monitoring), Councillor Martin Gallagher (Operations and Performance Activity) and Councillor John Gower (Statutory
Management).