How many councillors the Dunedin City Council should have and whether each one should still be elected from city-wide voting are among the issues to be assessed by an independent panel.

Other issues to be thrashed out include whether community boards should be retained and, if so, how many.

The council decided on Thursday a representation review should be led by an independent panel, rather than by staff.

Bringing back smaller geographical areas for councillors to be elected from, or wards, is one possible change.

As things stand, 14 councillors are elected from votes throughout the city, as well as the mayor.

Cr Russell Lund said he wanted particular scrutiny of how many councillors should sit at the table.

He read out a list of councils and suggested Dunedin was at the high end of councillor numbers.

Cr Jo Galer indicated she would like to see creation of a South Dunedin community board.

Stormwater needs had not been met in that area and better results might have been achieved had a community board existed for advocacy, she said.

Dunedin Mayor Sophie Barker said councillors needed to be careful about implying nothing had been done in South Dunedin.

“There has been a lot of work done in South Dunedin and there is a lot of work done in the budgets.” 

Ms Barker said it was a pity deciding upon the electoral system — single transferable vote (STV) or first past the post — was not part of the same process.

Cr Benedict Ong’s speech was mostly off-topic, including by talking about STV and candidates endorsed by political parties. He would stand for re-election in 2028, he said.

The council is required by law to review its representation arrangements at least once every six years.

Any changes would need to come in for the 2028 election.

Public input would be part of consultation processes and the final call might be made by the Local Government Commission.

The representation review panel would first review evidence, identify communities of interest, oversee early engagement and recommend representation arrangements for the council to consider, a report for councillors said.

The council would call for expressions of interest for people to be on the panel and members would then be appointed.

“Selection would be based on independence, relevant governance or local government experience, community engagement capability, knowledge of Dunedin, ability to assess evidence objectively, availability and conflicts of interest,” the report said.

The council intends to have a staged approach for the work — it would cease if the government made the review redundant by bringing in council mergers.

The government last week paused work on council amalgamations.