How Ruapehu District Council Transformed Local Democracy with Resolve
Ruapehu District Council
13,550
Tasha Paladin
Ruapehu District Council, located in a geographically vast region of New Zealand, serves a diverse community through three ward areas and multiple community boards. With 10 councillors and three-member community boards, council plays a vital role in connecting local governance with grassroots concerns.
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However, council’s traditional meeting management process was cumbersome and inefficient. Residents were expected to navigate 120+ page PDF agenda packs to find relevant information, often leading to frustration and disengagement, while staff faced a heavy administrative burden.
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While Resolve has significantly streamlined council meeting operations, Executive Manager Community, Governance and Resilience, Tasha Paladin, highlights how it has also had a transformative impact on community engagement and strengthened local democracy.
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From Chaos to Clarity: Recognising the Need for Change
Before implementing Resolve, the Ruapehu District Council team managed their meetings using a combination of Excel and Word documents. With large agenda packs and frequent version control issues, Tasha recognised the need for a better solution.
“The process had become a nightmare - we needed something smoother and more efficient,” Tasha explained. “Even after our CEO approved reports, anyone could still make changes until the document was converted to a PDF, and those PDFs were huge. It was all fraught with issues. With just one person managing the entire process, it was easy to lose track. We needed a simple, reliable system that anyone could step into and run with.”
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“Our community had to scroll through entire agenda packs just to find a single item. We often heard, 'I gave up trying to find what I was looking for.'"
In addition to internal inefficiencies, providing the community with access to council information was becoming increasingly difficult and time-consuming.
“We have a reasonably engaged community, but it was incredibly hard for them to find what they needed,” Tasha said. “Meeting minutes were sometimes published weeks after the fact, and people struggled to locate past discussions or relevant documents. They had to scroll through entire agenda packs just to find a single item. We often heard, ‘I gave up trying to find what I was looking for.’”
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The Ruapehu community can now access content with context, jump directly to agenda items, and easily find the topics that matter to them.
“Once we implemented Resolve, everything changed.”
In partnership with Team Redman, Tasha led the implementation of Resolve through a carefully staged process. This included comprehensive staff training, phased rollouts, and dedicated sessions for the executive leadership team.
“It was a lot of work, but I was able to manage it on my own,” Tasha shared. “Our community boards have always worked closely together when needed, and that collaboration really helped. I also created a handbook to guide everyone through the system. We took our time with the rollout because I wanted everything to be spot on.”
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Even with their small, multi‑hatted IT team already deep into a major change program, there was understandable hesitation about taking on another project. But once they learned Resolve would handle all configuration, integration, upgrades and user setup—with IT simply needing to ensure users were in the single sign‑on group—their concerns vanished.
“It was such a relief to discover their only task was flipping the SSO switch,” Tasha explained, “and that everything else was expertly managed. That clarity gave our IT team the confidence to fully back Resolve.”
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“It was such a relief to discover their only task was flipping the SSO switch, and that everything else was expertly managed. That clarity gave our IT team the confidence to fully back Resolve."​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
Once Resolve was in place, the impact was both immediate and profound. Administrators now have instant access to the information they need, meeting minutes are published within days instead of weeks, and mobile access has made staying informed easier than ever. But the most transformative change has been for elected members and the wider community.
“I expected Resolve to streamline our internal processes, but I didn’t anticipate how dramatically it would improve community engagement with local democracy,” Tasha said. “Before Resolve, I had to print and hand-deliver 15 agenda packs to our community boards, which took up half my day. Now, community members can subscribe to receive alerts when agendas are published. They can access content with context, jump directly to agenda items, and easily find the topics that matter to them. Resolve has made local governance accessible, not just theoretical.”
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“I expected Resolve to streamline our internal processes, but I didn’t anticipate how dramatically it would improve community engagement with local democracy. Resolve has made local governance accessible, not just theoretical."​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
While the team at Ruapehu has shifted from reactive information sharing to proactive community engagement, council staff and elected members have also experienced significant benefits. Tasha explained how users now feel empowered by having all relevant information centralised in one accessible location.
“One of our core values is about enabling others, and Resolve has truly done that,” Tasha said. “Our elected members can now independently access meeting content, documents, and decisions all in one place. It’s empowering. The search functionality is instant, and background documents and previous decisions are all linked, making the system truly accessible.”
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“It’s empowering. The search functionality is instant, and background documents and previous decisions are all linked, making the system truly accessible."
In summary, Tasha emphasised how Resolve has provided council with genuine transparency, clarity, context and confidence in the information they now create and provide.
“True transparency isn’t just about making more information available, it's about making it usable,” she said.
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“True transparency isn’t just about making more information available, it's about making it usable."​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​