Several in a debate in Mosgiel last night advocated for careful spending and for councillors to get better information from staff before decisions were made.
Jo Galer went so far as to say staff were "taking over governance" and councillors needed to step up.
The debate at the Taieri Bowling Club was run by the Dunedin Area Citizens Association and topics in the wide-ranging discussion included debt, the possibility of a heavy transport bypass for Mosgiel and the proposed Smooth Hill landfill.
Andrew Whiley, in his second debate of the day after taking part in the Otago University Students’ Association (OUSA) four-candidate forum in the afternoon,
said, distractions aside, the council was doing a good job and asking hard questions.
Lync Aronson said Dunedin could afford essential spending only.
Garreth Ottley said wisdom was required to determine when it was best to be the "early bird" or "the second mouse".
Conrad Stedman said there was a growing gap between decisions being made by the council and what ratepayers could realistically afford.
Lianna MacFarlane suggested a 45% sale of Aurora Energy.
Dr Angus Mackay said Dunedin should be the tech capital of New Zealand.
At the earlier debate hosted by OUSA, subjects included the university-council relationship, transport infrastructure and "s... landlords".
Aaron Hawkins, Mr Whiley and Bill Acklin highlighted their past experience as councillors, and in Mr Hawkins’ case, as Dunedin mayor.
Richard Knights acknowledged he had no such experience, but had been "schooling" himself and others on council processes through his local Facebook group.
Ms Galer contributed from the audience, chipping in a few answers to quick-fire questions directed at the four candidates.
Afterwards, she questioned how the speakers were selected and felt the meeting may have benefited from a more diverse panel.
OUSA political representative Flynn Nisbett said it was a valid concern — "the selection process was highest polling [from October’s election], plus former mayor, with some discretion for a balance of views".
Students found last year’s OUSA candidate meetings provided little insight into candidates’ plans, he said.
"This year we chose four to go in-depth."
