But another councillor said no-one was going to die in a ditch to save regional councils and territorial authorities were reeling from what they were now facing.
Central government had brought in a proposal to shake up local government, proposing to get rid of the remaining 11 regional councils, replaced by territorial boards, run by district mayors.
An Otago Regional Council meeting in Dunedin yesterday discussed the changes. The government had called for submissions by February 20.
Cr Gretchen Robertson, who was the chairwoman of the council from 2022 to 2025, but was replaced by Hilary Calvert for this term, said the council had done a lot of good things.
"We are moving bravely into a new era. But any reform of the system must by done with accuracy, partnership and what actually worked, not simplified anecdotes," she said.
"We must shift the disruptive narrative. It does not serve Otago and does not serve New Zealand. The change has to be guided by evidence and not a story that paints us as confused and duplicative.
"We need to think about what is best for Otago and its environment."
She said the Otago Regional Council did not design the national rules but it had to adhere to them. It had for years asked for clearer direction and a better resource consent framework.
She outlined the achievements made by the regional council in recent years.
Emergency management and recovery minister Mark Mitchell had visited Otago recently and said Otago had a gold standard emergency management system, she said.
The council’s floodbank infrastructure had just won millions of dollars worth of government funding. Port Otago was one of the best ports in the country, there had been some great rural collaborations with communities and economically Otago was leading the country.
She said the council could transition and should not be disposed of.
She proposed some sort of regional investment planning group to lead the province.
Cr Gary Kelliher said he agreed with some of what Cr Robertson said.
But the facts were the last council was heading down a path which was impacting too many people with controls and restrictions and telling them what to do.
The government was heading in another direction, he said.
Cr Alan Somerville said everyone wanted change and local government did need change. But he reminded councillors the regional councils were set up on the logic of catchments. That should not be forgotten in the future, he said.
Cr Kate Wilson agreed catchments were important and there was exciting work being done in them. However, catchments went across territorial authorities’ borders and she was not sure how that would sit with neighbouring territories and different plans.
It was about local democracy giving people a voice and she questioned whether the changes would do that.
Cr Michael Laws said no-one was going to die in a ditch for regional councils.
He was a supporter of unitary authorities and the government seemed to have missed their chance to go down that route.
"I think we created a rod for our own back. The way things were decided by the last council — the defiance, total defiance against central government," Cr Laws said.
He said territorial authorities were reeling from their workload and had a lot of new members who would take a while to get to grips with the system.
The council decided individual councillors would work with staff by January 9 and then a workshop in mid-January would bring collective thoughts. They would work with territorial authorities up to February 11 and have the submission ready by February 20.
