To what extent the Dunedin City Council should reach out to the community before drafting a long-term plan expected to be full of challenges is set to be decided today.
Staff recommended a mix of online content and targeted meetings.
The other options put in front of councillors were to strip this back to online engagement only or not run any early-engagement processes.
Councillors have previously said preparing the 2025-34 long-term plan would be difficult.
Investment in infrastructure will likely be one prominent theme, service levels and pressure on rates will have to be considered and priorities determined, as well as management of debt and working out how quickly to return to running surpluses.
A report for today’s civic affairs committee meeting said Dunedin’s context was "typified by the acknowledgement of balancing challenges and constraints with the ambitions" of the city.
An underlying sentiment of responsible investment, listening to the community and delivering council activities within a financially constrained environment would be prevalent in any content created for early engagement, if required.
There is no legislative requirement to undertake early-engagement processes and, whether or not one is run this time, the council is set to build on some work carried out last year.
The council started preparations last year for a 10-year plan, but ended up adopting just an annual plan for 2024-25 and deferring the long-term plan by a year.
"The tone of early engagement will be to check back in with the community after last year’s early-engagement process and encourage community feedback, while acknowledging the current Dunedin context", the report said.
If early engagement takes place, it will happen from October 9 to 23.
In the meantime, the city council is set to make a big call that will affect the 2025-34 long-term plan.
It is set to decide next week whether to put Aurora Energy on the market.
This might affect rates in future years and debt levels.
The staff’s recommended option about engagement was described as providing opportunities for councillor participation, mana whenua and Māori engagement and some other targeted engagement.
