Councillors encourage the public to read the full Martin Jenkins Independent Organisational Review

Councillors have welcomed the review from Martin Jenkins and its recommendations that will help improve the management and governance of the Kāpiti Coast District Council.

The independent review commissioned in 2019 was tasked with identifying where the council was performing well, and conversely, what needed to be improved. The review scope excluded individuals and instead focused on the organisation and governance.  We encourage the public to read the full report available on the Council website.

The review identified that the council does a number of things well, but that too often the achievements are not as well-known as they might be. However, the review also outlined a number of issues and made 29 recommendations covering areas where improvements can be made to lift the collective performance of Council.

Councillors welcomed the recommendations saying they offered a real opportunity to move the organisation forward.  As the governance arm, we must take ownership of the criticisms and recognize that we have an opportunity to make our organisation better.

The recommendations are broken into 10 themes:

• Support Council managers and staff in their decision-making, setting of priorities and managing workloads
• Ensure that the community understands why the Council is planning and doing what it does
• Clarify and enable the respective roles between Councillors, Chief Executive, Council management and staff
• Foster a constructive relationship between Councillors and Council management and staff
• Leverage the opportunities that the Community Boards present
• Strengthen the partnership relationship with mana whenua
• Continue with fostering the values behind Council’s Open for Business initiative to guide staff attitudes to service quality and customer focus, but change the name
• Adopt a more strategic approach to workforce planning within the organisation (managers supported by Organisational Development)
• Ensure the organization is resourced to support workforce planning and staff training and development
• Lift leaders’ and managers’ staff management skills where needed

Councillors look forward to working with the Chief Executive to ensure the recommendations in the report can help us improve, and we will ensure that the public are kept informed. The next step in the process will see the Chief Executive bringing a position paper to Council in response to the review’s recommendations.

The full report and recommendations can be downloaded at www.kapiticoast.govt.nz/your-council/the-role-of-council/2019-independent-organisational-review/