‘Not going to be workable’: ORC opposes proposed local govt changes

The Otago Regional Council has given a resounding thumbs down to getting mayors involved in decision-making around the province amid fears there will eventually be one council for the whole of Otago.

At a meeting in Dunedin yesterday, the regional council discussed points it wanted to put into its submission on the changes to local government, announced by central government last November.

The changes would see a combined territories board replace the Otago Regional Council, which may also include a crown commissioner.

The board would then develop a regional reorganisation plan to improve service delivery.

Cr Alan Somerville said the mayors were not the people to run things done by the Otago Regional Council. They did not have the skills and were not elected to carry out this job, he said.

The council all agreed that changes needed to happen for local government and Cr Michael Laws said central government had identified that governance of regional council had been the problem.

It wanted to get rid of regional councils to fix that and had made its feeling clear through comments from the ministers, Cr Laws said.

Terms such as the "Kremlin of the South" have been uttered, he said. The ORC now had to show why it was needed.

Chairwoman Hillary Calvert and deputy chairman Kevin Malcolm had wanted to head to Wellington to talk to ministers involved in the changes but they had been rebuffed by the likes of Minister of RMA Reform Chris Bishop and Minister of Local Government Simon Watts.

They had instead been invited to meet government officials.

Cr Andrew Noone said having mayors on a territory board just would not work as there would be patch protection and conflicts of interest.

"It does not make any sense," he said.

Cr Neil Gillespie, who had been a Central Otago District councillor for more than 20 years before not seeking election last year, instead running successfully for the regional council, said to him it was quite simple — "it was not going to be workable".

"They [mayors] do not have the capacity, capability or desire to do the job," he said.

Cr Kate Wilson said the mayors have got too many jobs already and now they were going to add another two to that — it was just unbelievable.

Cr Matt Hollyer said there would be fresher and clearer thinking if the mayors were not involved.

Cr Calvert said it made no sense to have the mayors involved and she wanted the changes brought in by the end of the current local government triennium in 2028.

The legislation would not come into law until 2027, the council was told.

She said a reorganisation of local government should be done with a South Island-wide approach, which won support from councillors.

Cr Laws called the document produced by the government to outline the changes confused. Changes were in fact not aimed at regional councils but at territorial authorities.

"If you look at the bullet points they are aiming to an aggregation of councils. That is the crux of it. We need to address that issue," Cr Laws said.

Council chief executive Richard Saunders said the government document around the proposal was more than shelving regional councils. He said the council submission should reflect what was the best structure it can put in place for the whole region.

Cr Gretchen Robertson said the regional council faced massive challenges in many areas and it was far from simple, which many people suggested.

Council staff would come up with a draft submission and present it to councillors in a few weeks before it would be signed off at its next meeting on February 11.