Governance Professionals and Committee Advisors Forum

Raymond re-joined Taituarā in June 2014 as Sector Improvement Manager, before commencing his current role as Chief Advisor at Taituarā. He has spent most of the last 20 years in local government related roles, most recently with the Department of Internal Affairs.

He describes his job as two-thirds providing assistance to the local government sector and one-third providing advice to central government on local government matters. His ambition is to help develop a Local Government Act that doesn’t require changes every 18 months. He asks that you wish him well with this task.

Katina Conomos started her career in the arts industry, working as an orchestra and tour manager with leading arts companies in Australia.After gaining her Masters of Business Administration, Katina has worked in a range of government environments in Australia, at both the federal and state level in major event delivery and in the local government sector in New Zealand.

Katina specialises in strategic and corporate planning, project planning, working with governing bodies, as well as strategy and policy development.As both an employee and later as a contractor, Katina has worked on several council’s Long Term Plan and Annual Plan projects and worked closely with elected members and senior management teams to develop council strategies and policies.

Fleur has 28 years as a governance professional and is passionate about democracy to create a positive face to local government in New Zealand. She believes that great local political leadership is crucial to our communities’ futures, especially in today’s environment and this will happen with high quality professional support from governance professionals. It is her absolute privilege to support her colleagues and she serves on the Democracy and Governance Support Working Party of Taituarā focussed on providing best practice guides (amongst other projects) to assist governance professionals in our industry. She is also a keen foodie, passionate parent and traveller.

Julie has worked in local government since 1994. Starting as an information officer with Auckland Regional Council she entered the governance world when she took on the roles of Hearings Coordinator and Committee Adviser. Moving from Auckland to New Plymouth in 1999, Julie became a Committee Adviser with New Plymouth District Council. In 2013, Julie was appointed Governance Lead (“the Governess”) at New Plymouth District Council. Julie has had involvement in a wide range of Council related activities including international relations, elected member inductions and elections. Julie is currently a member of the Democracy and Governance Support Working Party.

Vivienne is a Senior Solicitor at Christchurch City Council in their Legal Services Unit.

Before Vivienne joined Christchurch City Council at the beginning of this year, she was a Senior Associate at Simpson Grierson for 17 years in their Local Government and Environment team. She is also a former Parliamentary Counsel. Vivienne's extensive experience in local authority issues includes decision-making processes, bylaws (review, drafting and interpretation), electoral law, traffic and transport related matters, dog control, sale of alcohol and local alcohol policies, water supply, access to official information, and privacy questions.

After working initially for the Parliamentary Counsel Office, Leo joined the Office of the Ombudsmen in 1985 as an investigating officer in the then Official Information Act section of the Office. He was appointed Senior Investigating Officer of the Official Information section in 1990 and Assistant Ombudsman in November 1996.

In September 2004, Leo was appointed to the newly established position of Deputy Ombudsman. In his role as Deputy Ombudsman Investigations and Inspections, Leo has assisted the New Zealand Ombudsmen in carrying out their statutory investigation and review functions under the Ombudsmen Act, the Official Information Act, the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act, the Protected Disclosures Act and the Crimes of Torture Act. On 5 July 2016 Leo was appointed as an Ombudsman commencing on 1 August 2016. Among the portfolio areas for which he will have specific responsibility are Ombudsmen Act and LGOIMA complaints against local government agencies.

Leo has written papers and addressed seminars both in New Zealand and overseas on issues relating to procedural fairness and good administrative practice, along with the operation of New Zealand’s official information legislation and its interaction with public records legislation.

Alex Schröder has worked for the Ombudsman’s Office since 2011. He is a Senior Investigator based in Auckland, however, he is currently seconded to the Office’s Policy and Professional Practice Advisory Group as an Acting Principal Advisor.