It appears council staff have accepted a call from deputy mayor Cherry Lucas to enable councillors to probe budgets more deeply as they develop the 2025-34 draft long-term plan.
Development of the plan would include workshops with councillors on all activity budgets in more granular detail, a council spokesman said.
The intended approach is expected to be outlined to councillors at the end of this month.
At a council meeting last month, Cr Lucas said she had put chief executive Sandy Graham and chief financial officer Carolyn Allan on notice that "as part of the nine-year plan deliberations, not only I, but all of this council, need to interrogate all of the budgets more".
"I will not be apologising, colleagues, for the additional reading ... you will be required to do," she said to councillors.
"I believe it’s essential we know more about the makeup of the budgets and seek out not only any area where savings can be made, but also any areas where extra income can be generated."
Voters expected nothing less, she said.
Cr Lucas has a degree in accounting and experience in public accounting and senior management.
Asked by the Otago Daily Times this week for further comment, the deputy mayor said she felt she had not dug deep enough into the budgeting before the 2024-25 annual plan was approved, including a 17.5% rates increase.
This had come from a place of self-reflection, she said.
"Going forward, I really want to get into the weeds ... we have to question everything we do," Cr Lucas said.
This was especially necessary in an environment of high inflation and a cost-of-living crisis, she said.
Information for the annual plan tended to be quite "high level" and she wanted to "get right down into how the budgets are made up".
Cr Sophie Barker agreed.
"We’ve got to get the basics right," she said at the meeting.
"I don’t think there’s enough accountability and transparency and we need to focus on examining the costs and benefits of all operational expenses."
Levels of service would need to be looked at, Cr Barker said.
"Does this [particular item] actually matter and is it delivering for our community?"
A piecemeal approach to decision-making would not suffice, she added.
Asked for further comment, Cr Barker said there had been some frustration about "top-line budgets".
"I think we need to get down to more granular detail."
A decision by the council in February to defer the 10-year plan by a year because of Three Waters uncertainty — shortening it to a 2025-34 long-term plan — created some complications for 2024-25 annual plan decision-making.
Cr Christine Garey was one councillor who said the deferral led to unintended consequences in determining some funding and this was to be expected in the circumstances.
Several councillors said during annual plan deliberations producing the next long-term plan loomed as a difficult assignment.
Development of the draft long-term plan is again expected to be an immense exercise.
Matters for debate will include debt levels, an investment strategy, how to return the council to running surpluses, what to do about Three Waters, zero-carbon action and the future of Dunedin Railways.
Ms Graham provided indications of the likely calendar during an audit and risk subcommittee meeting last week.
"Look, it’s hard, there’s a lot," she said.
Ms Graham signalled topic-based material for the nine-year plan could be considered in December and financial components in late January.
Public feedback on the draft plan is expected to happen about March or April next year.
Cr Lucas acknowledged at the subcommittee meeting councillors had asked for "a lot of reports" about various subjects.
