Local government

There is some information which only the Dunedin City Council can provide. In other words, it has a monopoly.

Waitaki Mayor Alex Familton, councillors and community board members will get a pay increase under remuneration rates approved recently by the Remuneration Authority.

Various attempts have been made over many years to combine the voices of Otago's local bodies, the most successful during the post-war period being the Otago Council which fought for, and eventually succeeded, in obtaining a South Island electricity differential in the early 1970s to recompense local users for the impact of the hydro-electricity schemes.

It is extraordinary that the Dunedin City Council finds it necessary to pass a resolution prohibiting some of its own councillors from attending one of its working parties, even as observers.

Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull has introduced a new structure for the council's community boards and committees that he hopes will be more efficient and allow councillors' time to be better used.

Environment stewards, economic developers or both? Rebecca Fox talks to retiring Otago Regional Council chairman Stephen Cairns about the role of the local body.

At the last local government election, in Dunedin and across most of New Zealand, voter figures dropped below 50% for the first time since the re-organisation of local government in 1989. Dunedin City Council reporter David Loughrey asks why the public is turning away from the action at the very heart of our system of government, what is behind the problem, and how it can be fixed.

If ever the voter "turnout" at local government elections is going to be high, it should be this year.

A "last-minute curve ball" from the Office of the Auditor-general meant the Otago Regional Council's annual report for 2009-10 could not be completed in time for yesterday's council meeting.

In another surprising twist to the Clutha District Council mayoral race yesterday, Balclutha businessman Bryan Cadogan lodged a last-minute nomination, bringing the number of contenders to four.