Hamilton City Council met on 14 March 2019. The information below is a summary of decisions made and is not the formal minutes of the meeting. The agenda and associated report are and minutes are available on the Council’s website at hamilton.govt.nz/agendas.

CULTURAL APPROPRIATENESS

As a response to an item in the Chair’s report around cultural appropriateness of the naming of some of the city’s roads, Council requested the Chief Executive to work with Waikato-Tainui to provide a high-level report relating to issues of cultural sensitivity with the names of Council controlled sites. This report will look at roads and parks and the costs of the study will be shared with Waikato-Tainui.

ELECTRIC SCOOTER AND SIMILAR HIRE BUSINESSES

The Council approved a recommendation from the Growth and Infrastructure Committee to develop a draft code of practice for operators looking to run bike and electric scooter type businesses in public places around the city. It will detail the requirements and service expectations of the Council, including safety and operational practice, and is expected to be in place later this year.

SMOKEFREE POLICY

The Council approved the 2019 Smokefree Outdoor Areas policy and Smokefree Plan, with an amendment to the initial recommendation. The amendment removed all references to vaping and noted the policy is to be revisited in a year.

SUBMISSIONS

Council approved the draft submissions on the following topics:

• NZ Productivity Commission’s Local Government Funding and Financing Inquiry.
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• WEL Energy Trust’s 2019-20 Draft Annual Plan
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• Council also delegated the Chief Executive to make a submission to the Ministry of Education on its Reform of Vocational Education
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COMMUNITY LAND TRUST

Council approved reallocating funding for social housing as follows:

• $600,000 of debt funding brought forward from 2022-2024 to 2019-2020
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• $600,000 of debt funding brought forward from 2022-2024 to 2020-2021;
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Council approved that this funding (in addition to the $400,000 per year currently allocated to social housing in 2019 – 2021) is to be available to go towards a community land trust. The Chief Executive will report back to Council on 27 June on what the structure of this land trust would look like.

HAMILTON I-SITE REVIEW

The item on the future of the i-SITE was held over until a future meeting so GM Sean Murray could be present.

PROSTITUTION BYLAW REVIEW

The Council has an existing Prostitution Bylaw that is due to be reviewed (the bylaw is required to be reviewed every 10 years).

The purpose of the bylaw is to manage commercial sexual service providers in the city and outline requirements around things like brothel locations, signage restrictions and sensitive sites.

Council has agreed that the current Prostitution Bylaw is the most appropriate means of controlling the issue of prostitution services in Hamilton City and no changes are being proposed.

The proposed bylaw will be open for feedback from Monday 18 March to Thursday 18 April.

All information and a submission form will be available on Council’s website hamilton.govt.nz/haveyoursay from Monday.

SPECIAL HOUSING AREAS – EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST

Council has received a further Special Housing Area (SHA) proposal to be developed on Quentin Drive. This is the second SHA proposal for Quentin Drive, covering a larger area than the first SHA application, and involves the creation of 111 new sections.

The proposal will be open for feedback from Monday 18 March until Friday 12 April.

Full details on the proposal will be available on hamilton.govt.nz/housingaccord and affected residents will be notified via letter drop.

MANAGEMENT OF TE RAPA SPORTSDROME

Council approved retaining the management of Te Rapa Sportsdrome in-house by Hamilton City Council.

SAFETY AND WELLNESS PERFORMANCE UPDATE

Councillors were updated on the health and safety performance of the organisation.

REVIEW OF STANDING ORDERS

Council discussed and adopted the draft Standing Orders. Standing orders are the rules that govern the conduct of council and committee meetings and are updated as required. New Standing Orders take immediate effect.

COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS

Following recommendations from Committees of the Council, the Council approved:

• The Municipal and Domain Endowment Funds Policy
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• The revised Appointment and Remuneration of Board Members of COs, CCOs and CCTOs Policy
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• The Freeholding of Council Endowment Land Policy.
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The Council also noted the Vibrant Hamilton Trust has officially wound up and that the Hamilton City Council Governance Structure will be updated accordingly.

FINANCIAL STRATEGY MONITORING REPORT

The Council approved the rephasing and delay deferrals of an additional $10.7M capital projects from 2018/19 to 2019/20 as listed in the February 2019 Capital Portfolio Monitoring Report, approved the associated forecast adjustments and revised forecast Financial Strategy graphs for Debt to Revenue, Net Debt and Balancing the Books.

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