BOROUGH BUSINESS

Waikato Times, Volume 122, Issue 20503, 20 May 1938, Page 6

BOROUGH BUSINESS

The Alayor of Hamilton, Air H. D. Caro, deemed it advisable, when he presided over the Borough Council for the first time, to mention one or two developments that he would like to see in the transaction of civic business. The councillors naturally were willing to fall in with the suggestions made, for the Alayor is responsible for the direction of the council’s business, and doubtless each occupant of the mayoral chair has his own ideas as to the means most likely to ensure efficiency and despatch. In this case the Alayor will have made his suggestions as the result of observations and experience gained during his term of service on the council, and if they were not known to his fellow councillors the reasonable nature of the proposals would be sufficient to ensure their support. The Mayor’s first request was that committee reports should be more detailed than had previously been the case. The committee work is shared by the members, for it would be too great a demand to make on anyone’s time and attention to suggest that he should attend all of them. Committees are formed for particular purposes, and they discharge much of the routine and detail work. It is a delegation of authority that has proved most satisfactory, and it is not intended to limit these activities in any way. But, from time to time, issues of general importance come first before some committee and its decision, or recommendation, is conveyed to the council in a report. Air Caro has asked the chairmen of the respective committees to make the reports more comprehensive. The intention is that with more detailed information in their possession the members of the council will be able to deal with the matters more satisfactorily, and that if anything at all controversial arises there will be “a better and fuller knowledge of the subjects under discussion.” A great deal of the work that must be done is of a routine order. A study of the agenda paper of a meeting of the council, or a report by a committee, will quickly prove that to be the case, and it would be a waste of time to have these minor matters brought before an open meeting. The committee to which it has been referred, or to which it goes in the usual course of business, makes a reference to it in its report, and any member can ask for more detailed information, when the report is before the council. That is the safeguard, as the Alayor pointed out. The decisions of any committee, unless expressly given authority to act, must be confirmed by the council. However, the Alayor went a stage further, in his evident desire that the proceedings of the civic authority should be given the fullest publicity. The General Purposes Committee is a most useful one, and it consists of the Alayor and all the councillors. It meets usually on the Wednesday preceding the council meeting, and enables a great deal of work to be done. Discussions on points of interest or importance are taken, although a decision is occasionally challenged when the report of the proceedings comes before the council. The committee to a certain extent represents the working session of the council in matters of detail, leaving the usual sitting free for the consideration of other phases of public business. The Alayor has proposed that the meetings of the General Purposes Committee should be open to the Press, and that will enable the views of individual members to be reported whenever any matter of general interest comes up for discussion. That should be of service both to the councillors and to the public, and tend to stimulate a close interest by the citizens in the deliberations of those who administer the affairs of the borough.