Electoral officer for Rotorua Lakes Council Warwick Lampp said byelection candidate nominations for the remaining two seats open on November 24 and close on December 22.<\/p>\n
If only two people came forward, they will automatically be elected to join Rothwell and MacMillan.<\/p>\n
Any more than two will mean an election is needed, with voting open from January 30 to March 3 next year, Lampp said. <\/p>\n
Former Rotorua Lakes Community Board chairman Phill Thomass, who died in September. Photo \/ Laura Smith<\/p>\n
The board, established in 2007 to represent rural lakeside communities such as Hamurana, Rotoiti, Rotoehu, Rotoma, \u014ck\u0101reka and Tarawera, acts as a conduit with Rotorua Lakes Council.<\/p>\n
In 2022, the only four candidates were automatically elected, meaning no votes have been cast for the board since 2019, when seven challengers vied for the four seats.<\/p>\n
MacMillan said the lack of voting had occasionally made him feel like \u201ca fraud\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never had an election, which is quite sad for democracy,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Standing for the Lakes Community Board is about \u201csupporting the people who live in our area,\u201d he said, with a strong focus on water quality and flood management.<\/p>\n
Being on the board gives residents a direct line to the council, helping local issues get noticed, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s how I see it. As a way to really help your community rather than just complain.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rothwell battled to an election win in 2019 but was an unopposed byelection winner in 2023 following the resignation of Stephanie George.<\/p>\n
Rotorua Lakes Community Board member Jennifer Rothwell. Photo \/ Andrew Warner<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be really good if we get some people to throw their hat in the ring,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s quite disappointing that nobody did for the elections, actually very disappointing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rotorua Lakes councillor Fisher Wang was the council representative for the board last term. <\/p>\n
He said board members are the \u201ceyes and ears\u201d for the lakes community and praised previous work on civil defence preparedness, funding for automated defibrillator devices and renovating community playgrounds and toilets.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe working relationship the board have with council staff is crucial,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey provide feedback on those more isolated pockets, those isolated communities, and just allow for that connection back to council.\u201d <\/p>\n
Rotorua Lakes councillor Fisher Wang. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n
He advised anyone thinking of running to contact one of the current members or to simply \u201cgive it a go\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a really rewarding responsibility,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe changes and support you can help provide for your community are very visible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rotorua\u2019s deputy electoral officer Rick Dunn said voting will be postal and orange voting bins will be distributed to \u201csuitable locations\u201d.<\/p>\n
He also confirmed that should they fail to receive two nominations for the vacancies, another byelection will not take place. <\/p>\n
Instead, the community board may \u201cdetermine by resolution\u201d that \u201ca person who is qualified to be elected\u201d is appointed.<\/p>\n
The board\u2019s two vacancies are among 14 local government seats across the country that remain unelected, stretching from Whakat\u0101ne to Gore. Most of these are on community boards. <\/p>\n
From 2025, the annual pay for a community board member has been set at $10,064 by the Remuneration Authority, with the chairperson\u2019s set at $20,128.<\/p>\n
Rotorua\u2019s other community board, for rural constituents, was contested at the recent election, with Colin Guyton, Tina Marshall, Karen Forlong and Tina Rose elected. <\/p>\n
Mathew Nash is a Local Democracy Reporting journalist based at the Rotorua Daily Post. He has previously written for SunLive, been a regular contributor to RNZ and was a football reporter in the UK for eight years.<\/p>\n
\u2013 LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Electoral officer for Rotorua Lakes Council Warwick Lampp said byelection candidate nominations for the remaining two seats open…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,1558,2372,7244,18920,1259,2223,7123,17896,6119,20833,1888,8456,305,29529,5365,4754,111,43,139,69,1118,1327,56638,27950,2044,84664,38533,7246,1533,102,1530],"class_list":["post-120143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-been","tag-board","tag-byelection","tag-cast","tag-community","tag-confirmed","tag-current","tag-dates","tag-faces","tag-fill","tag-first","tag-fresh","tag-have","tag-hoping","tag-lakes","tag-members","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-rotorua","tag-seats","tag-seeks","tag-time","tag-uncontested","tag-vacant","tag-votes","tag-will","tag-with","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}