Straight from city council A personal view, by Councillor Steve Morris

This week Tauranga City Council fulfilled one of councillor Larry Baldock's election promises and we agreed to survey residents about some topical council issues via water rates invoices and online.

Topics will include a cap on bottle stores and pokie machines, Easter trading and changes to ward representation.

The feedback will be useful and it could help the public's perception of local democracy. I tried and failed to have an open workshop to include another topic on the survey list: Council's recent decision to allow appointment of non-elected people on council committees such as the New Zealand Transport Agency, Priority One, tangata whenua and councillors from other councils.

There are some strengths in this but given nobody campaigned on the issue before the election, and it's a change to the governance of the city, I thought the decision should be run past you – the ratepayer.

The sceptic in me thinks if an issue crops up that is unlikely to be supported by the public, we simply won't survey you about it!

Also, this week council decided to begin a rates review with a focus on our reverse Robin Hood tax whereby 71 per cent of properties subsidise the rates of the top 10 per cent value properties.

I was absolutely delighted because this is on my political ‘bucket list'. You've had to put up with me banging on about how unfair our rating system is in this column for a few weeks and if you didn't end up in an irreversible coma, well done!