Members expressed their pleasure being back at Marsden following a period of lockdown and several weeks of meeting on Zoom.
Our guest speaker, Wellington City Councillor, Rebecca Matthews.
Rebecca is a new Councillor for the Wharangi Onslow-Western Ward, and lives in Ngaio with her husband and family. She has brought a considerable amount of experience to the council table having worked with trade unions and a wide range of community groups.
Rebecca has an ebullient and energetic nature and she engaged in a free exchange style of meeting with questions and views expressed throughout her address. These covered a wide range of topics including strengthening costs for the Wellington City Library Building, the challenges between the governance and policy setting role of councillors with the operating arm of Council carried out by staff. She got onto a number of other touchy subjects including water reticulation, cycle ways in the city, and other matters high on the Council’s agenda which sparked an interesting dialogue between Rebecca and our membership.
Rebecca is the Council’s portfolio leader for community engagement and she also sits on a number of key committees of Council. President Phil praised Rebecca’s commitment to issues faced by Council and for her leadership to help many community groups with difficulties with their lives getting access to key social services. The Club looked forward to keeping in touch with Rebecca on various issues going forward.
We also welcomed our new Assistant Governor, David Shackleton, of Karori, immediate past President of the Port Nicholson Rotary Club,to our meeting. David spoke to us about his responsibilities and future engagement activities.