In Alexandra, one small meeting attended by mainly retirees was the only public meeting held. Working rate payers are, well, working. Most rate payers are not going to spend hours on the internet seeking information that may inform them of which council is a better fit with their local one - if any.
We as rate payers need to see a published comparison between the various council debt levels, interest paid by councils, staffing levels, annual income from ratepayers and dividends from council-controlled companies (CCOs), contingent liabilities - and all published in a easily understood framework.
It’s a fair question to ask why this has not already been done.
The Otago Regional Council was bequeathed Port Otago who in turn own Chalmers Properties which buys and sells property. Combined they are probably worth around two billion dollars. Should that entity be sold to pay down debt? Probably, but that debate won’t happen.
The excellent recent article from Dr Robert Hamlin of Otago University, published in the local newspaper highlighted the inherent fault lines within council such as staff deciding the council agenda and not the duly elected councilors. This is just one example of why there needs to be a review of all functions of Local Government. Just why we still have a mayor and not a chair of all councils is never explained. A poor performing mayor can’t be voted out of that office, but a chair of a regional council can. Both can remain as councilors - if necessary. It would also help enormously if councilors had to pass a financial competence test before expressing their desire to manage - in Dunedin’s case - a few hundred million other people’s money.
The 2002 Local Govt act gave councils the power of General Competence which was a major mistake as the ensuring 24 years have illustrated all over the country. The Dunedin City Council still appears as a headline act in the local paper at least once a week, if not more, for all the wrong reasons. Why?
The politicization of Local Government was also a serious mistake. The Green and Labor parties now endorse and appoint their own candidates, so an ideology doesn’t just creep into debates around a council table - it dominates them. This is a major distraction from a rational discussion on the well being of the area and not the well being of their preferred political party.
It would help enormously if all transport issues were placed under control of one professional regional body (a CCO perhaps ) and without a councilor in sight. The same applies to rivers whose water use is a matter of contentious opinion.
The almost complete separation of management and Governance in council simply doesn’t work at all well for the ratepayer, councillors, and staff - yet no change is ever advocated. Cross pollination is essential in my world
The problems with Local Government can quite easily solved with the right people in charge. These are people who don’t have to try to learn on the job and are experienced in financial management or water engineering etc . This applies to both staff and councilors.
Currently we see temper tantrums from councilors all over the country and in Parliament - who promote their own ill-informed opinions. The wider public used to have a way of dealing with such people whose behavior resembles that of a 3-year-old. Some years ago, a single smack and time out in their bedroom to reflect on their behaviour seemed to work. Today, the ill-informed are likely to get a standing ovation from authorities and a guaranteed future in the United Nations!
We always seem to allow the wrong people with limited or no experience in the field for which they are given responsibilities, to speak and vote on issues they have no prior knowledge of except a staff report, so it should be of no surprise we have systemic failures in Local Government. The answers, however, are not hard to find as Dr Robert Hamlin has pointed out - if there was a will to do so. Chasing one’s tail in a Local Government debating chamber has never really worked - but they certainly look busy making decisions too many are ill equipped to vote on.
Gerry Eckhoff is a former councillor on the Otago Regional Council and MP.
3 comments:
It is the "informed" decisions of rate-payers that has created the current mess.
I'm with the Government: More of the same would just create more of the same.
The current suggestion, in my opinion, is only flawed in that it doesn't go far enough. Far better to disestablish Local Government completely and put in Local Managers, answerable to the general public via public floggings and periods in public stocks.
New Zealand was actually a thriving democracy when there was the Town Clerk, the Hospital Board , the Catchment Board , the Harbour Board , the Education Board the Power Board and most importantly NO RMA.
NZ could even provide a full successful Commonwealth Games , not a substitute event.
With a voter turnout dropping below 40%, the public are displaying contempt for local democracy. So explain to me how extended consultation will achieve anything beyond delaying the inevitable. Local democracy died years ago. So long as the rubbish gets collected, the sewage doesn't flow in the streets and the potholes get filled most people would never notice, much less care, if appointed Commissioners took over every local authority. Commissioners appointed on merit of course. Not their ability to pander to the few who bother to return their ballot papers. As they say. If you don't use it, you lose it.
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