Appointment of Community Rep to Westport Rating District Joint committee
Kevin Smith made this Official Information request to West Coast Regional Council
Response to this request is delayed. By law, West Coast Regional Council should normally have responded promptly and by (details and exceptions)
From: Kevin Smith
Dear West Coast Regional Council,
The vacancy for the Buller community rep for the subject joint committee was advertised mid-2024.
1.. . . . Could you please advise the number of valid applications received at at 5pm on the closing date, 5th July 2024 ?
2. . . . Could you please confirm that the selected applicant was one of those that had applied by that closing date ?
This was a joint process between WCRC and BDC but it was a WCRC Business Support Officer coordinating.
Yours faithfully,
Kevin Smith
From: WCRC Information
West Coast Regional Council
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Thank you for your e mail.
We have forwarded to the appropriate department to action. They will be
in contact should any further information be required.
Should you need any additional assistance, please don't hesitate to
contact us.
Many thanks,
WCRC Information
West Coast Regional Council
[West Coast Regional Council request email]
|+64 3 768 0466
This email may contain information that is confidential, proprietary or
subject to legal privilege.
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dissemination, distribution or copying of this message or data is
prohibited. If you have received this email message in error, please
notify the sender and erase all copies of the message and attachments.
WCRC Information
West Coast Regional Council
[1][West Coast Regional Council request email] | [2]+64 3 768 0466 [3]Facebook [4]Twitter [5]YouTube
[6]West Coast Regional Council Website
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From: Rasela Barrow
West Coast Regional Council
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Dear Peter
Thank you for your information request of 16 March 2025 seeking
information on the Buller community representative, Westport Joint
Committee. We will proceed to process your request under the Local
Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987 (LGOIMA) and will
endeavour to respond to your request no later than 11 April 2025 being 20
working days after the day your request was received. If we are unable to
respond to your request by then, we will notify you of an extension of
that timeframe.
Kind regards
Rasela Barrow
Executive Assistant | West Coast Regional Council
[1][email address] | [2]+64 3 744 7337 | [3]+6421795517 [4]Facebook [5]Twitter [6]YouTube
[7]West Coast Regional Council Website
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From: Kevin Smith
Dear Rasela Barrow,
The LGOIMA request was submitted two weeks ago and it would appear that there was no effort taken to answer two simple questions.
The vacancy has been pending since May last year and the questions would have related to correspondence from some moths ago. Nothing at all difficult.
As it turned out the request was overtaken by the events of the past week or two.
It would seem the council has been working with the last possible time to reply, 11th April.
We all knew that a reply by then would be of no help whatsoever.
This matter has been referred to the Ombudsman and will also form a complaint to the Ministry of Local Government.
I have asked Christine for electronic copies of the letter and nomination form
I also wish to forward more correspondence.
The original two questions will now be rephrased.
1. . . .Could the WCRC please provide the application letters for all nominees, at all dates ?
2. . . Could I please be sent copies of all correspondence relating to the dealing of those nominees ?
This will be between Councillors and council and also that sent through to the BDC.
I expect this will include discussion from the three meetings of the past week.
I realise the BDC and WCRC discussed the matter under public excluded but this is now post-event and this should now be available.
The third meeting was the Joint Committee and there will be correspondence there, again from within the public excluded portion of the minutes and also emails to individual members.
This correspondence will be presented to both the Ombudsman and Minister of Local Government.
The local MP will be involved and ensuring this is all dealt with in a timely manner.
Yours sincerely,
Kevin Smith
From: Rasela Barrow
West Coast Regional Council
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Dear Mr Smith,
Further to your email received at the Council on 7 April 2025 advising us
that you are rephrasing your initial LGOIMA request (REQ 2025-3390), we
understand you now seek the following information relating to the
appointment process for the Buller community representative:
a. Copies of the application letters for all nominees, at all dates; and
b. Copies of all correspondence relating to those nominees including both
internal correspondence and correspondence with Buller District
Council, and including any discussion from the three meetings of the
past week.
The LGOIMA provides that clarification or amendment of a request is
considered to be a new request for the purpose of calculating the maximum
statutory timeframe for a response (refer section 13(7) of the LGOIMA).
We will proceed to process your amended request and will endeavour to
respond to your request no later than 8 May 2025 being 20 working days
after the day your amended request was received. If we are unable to
respond to your request by then, we will notify you of an extension of
that timeframe.
Kind regards
Rasela Barrow
Executive Assistant | West Coast Regional Council
[1][email address] | [2]+64 3 744 7337 | [3]+6421795517 [4]Facebook [5]Twitter [6]YouTube
[7]West Coast Regional Council Website
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Kevin Smith left an annotation ()
The request was altered to reflect the tardy nature and stance adopted by the WCRC.
This is a council that is funded by ratepayers to look after the community.
There were two simple questions, they would have taken just literally minutes to answer.
The council made no effort to answer in a timely fashion and that has now been passed onto the Ombudsman.
There will also be an official complaint to the Ministry of Local Government.
This latest reply is just a further example of that attitude.
The nominations close on 24th April.
The original request was to have been answered by 11th April, that seems like it will ever be answered now.
The correct response would have been to answer all questions by tomorrow, after-all that is what the council has been working on for the past three weeks.
I have a number of LGOIMA requests with this authority.
I would think all are being handled in a similar fashion.
The replies are generally all last minute and leave much to be desired.
This is an election year and the WCRC will be getting portrayed in a very poor light.
Something entirely of their own doing.
Their communications effort is completely unsatisfactory.
Things to do with this request
- Add an annotation (to help the requester or others)
- Download a zip file of all correspondence
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Kevin Smith left an annotation ()
This matter has been referred to the ombudsman.
Link to this