The compulsory review, held every six years, saw the council put forward a proposal to keep the status quo and, following public submissions, this week conduct a formal hearing.
Deliberations on the 11 submissions, pending a report, will go to the next formal council meeting on October 22 to adopt the recommended proposal to keep the "status quo".
None of the 11 submitters to the 2024 review wished to front the September 10 hearing.
Cr Jim Hopkins, noting the low number of submissions, wondered if the council "might assume the relative lack of engagement" reflected happiness by the majority of the district’s 24,000 residents.
Cr John McCone said whether the submitters agreed with the way the council operated, "they did make some relevant points".
Mayor Gary Kircher noted that regardless of the plus or minus 10% quantum for ward representation, councillors were there to represent the whole community.
"The other bit we’ve got to remember is at the beginning of term we swear an oath to serve on behalf of the [whole] community," he said.
On the other hand, if council had put out a proposal for change this time, it might have "provoked more people to make some submissions".
Mr Kircher cited another Otago district council, Clutha, which was radically proposing to slash its representatives from 14 to nine.
A summary report to the hearing noted submissions in 2024 were more than double of that received in 2018.
Waitaki district’s population has grown by nearly 10% in the past six years.
The highest growth has been in the two rural wards immediately inland of Oamaru.
Ahuriri, including Kurow, Otematata and Omarama, has grown by 17.8%, while Corriedale, covering the lower Waitaki Valley and the Oamaru hinterland as far south as Herbert, has increased by 11.6%.
The council’s preferred status quo option, when adopted, will see Waitaki keep a mayor elected at large and 10 councillors across four wards: Oamaru (6), Corriedale (2), Ahuriri and Waihemo (1 each).
It will also keep two community boards for Waihemo and Ahuriri of five elected members each and one appointed ward councillor each.
Three submitters felt six, seven or eight councillors were enough. There was one call for more councillors and no community boards, while another submitter called for "a stronger voice" for rural wards — in reference to the controversial district plan process which proposes new rural land classifications.
The majority of submitters supported the existing two community board arrangement, although there was an alternative suggestion of having "a rural advocacy group" for the council instead, reflecting rural antipathy over council’s district plan process.
Other ideas included amalgamating the Waihemo ward — centred on Palmerston — with the Dunedin City Council because it was "more closely aligned" to the city than Oamaru.
