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

Tauranga City Council is looking for your feedback on how councillors are elected, Easter trading, and pokie machines. This survey is attached to your water rates and you can return it in the same pre-paid envelope.

Councillors are currently elected in three wards and ‘at-large' across the city. If that sounds confusing I don't blame you, but it's like the MMP system that we use in national elections. ‘Ward' councillors are like electorate MPs.

We represent the residents of a specific location in the city; in my case Mount Maunganui and Papamoa, but we swear an oath to serve the city as a whole.

‘At-large' councillors are like list MPs. They don't represent a particular area but are elected by votes across the whole city. You can let us know if you want to keep this system or remove the ‘at-large' councillors and replace them with more local representatives.

A third option is removing the ward councillors and replace them with councillors elected across the city on one ballot.

We are also seeking your view as to whether the city should allow trading on Easter Sunday. My view is that parliament should have made this decision for the whole country rather than passing it to individual councils. Now there is the potential for some towns to be open and some closed.

Lastly, you can have your say on whether the number of pokie machines in the city should be reduced, stay the same or increase with population. You can also have your say online at www.tauranga.govt.nz/snapshotsurvey