On Monday elected members went on an economic bus tour to check out some local businesses in Tauranga.

We called into Newnham Park Innovation Centre in Te Puna. They have a range of businesses and foster innovation; some of the businesses we visited there included pollen exports, robotic development and Heilala Vanilla.

We heard feedback from owners of how Tauranga City Council can assist businesses and the main response was to ensure that our city is business friendly.

Warwick Downing, chief executive of Tida (Titanium Industry Development Association Inc), showed us the diversity and precision of their operations by showing us a few examples of their work – it ranged from a small heart valve used in surgery to a replacement dog jaw and knives used by Dean Barker and his team during the America's Cup.

With their cutting edge technology, they can reduce waste down to one per cent.

Warwick Downing, dhief executive of Tida, holds a 33g knife used by Dean Barker's team in the America's Cup.

Open forum no longer

Tuesday's Council meeting was our first formal council meeting since the inaugural council meeting on October 30, 2013.

Committees, chairs and deputy chairs were confirmed and committees populated with elected members.

The hearings panel has not been delegated authority to hear resource consent matters. These matters will now be heard by the independent hearings commissioners selected from TCC's list of appointed independent hearings commissioners.

Standing orders and code of conduct were next on our agenda.

One major change is that anyone wishing to speak during the public forum at the beginning of a meeting must request it in writing at least five working days before the meeting. The chair can waive this requirement if they deem the matter urgent or of major public interest.

Under previous standing orders, anyone could turn up to the meeting to speak for up to 10 minutes. There was a total of 30 minutes allocated at meetings for the community to address elected members.

All requests to speak must now include name of speaker and subject matter. The chair may decline a request to speak based on timing, subject matter, whether there is a more suitable avenue for the subject and behaviour of the person.

At the end of meetings we used to have an open forum; an opportunity to raise matters and/or ask questions. I found this useful on many occasions during the last six years. There were never decisions made during the open forum.

Elected members will need to find other ways to better engage with the community and I am looking forward to exploring ways of progressing this.