In February last year the Dunedin City Council unanimously passed a motion asking for a report on it and the Otago Regional Council forming a unitary authority in the city.
Technically any unitary authority would not be a merger as the regional council has responsibilities outside of the city limits.
Cr Lee Vandervis, who has long supported one unitary council and put forward the motion asking for a review, said the report could not come soon enough.
The $10million spent by the regional council in its search for a site for its new Dunedin headquarters was just one example of what happened when councils competed against each other and doubled up on bureaucracy, he said.
The proposed redevelopment of the city's waterfront was another area where having one council would save time and money.
"When the DCC wants to develop the waterfront but the ORC owns Port Otago and most waterfront land, again the differing approaches to the same infrastructure has meant that little gets done but at enormous expense."
There were now six unitary councils in New Zealand: Nelson City Council, Gisborne District Council, Chatham Islands Council, Marlborough District Council, Tasman District Council and the amalgamated Auckland Council.
All worked well and showed what could be achieved in Dunedin, Cr Vandervis said.
He hoped the report would trigger an investigation of the city's local government by the Local Government Commission.
City council chief executive Sue Bidrose said due to other priorities the report had not progressed. It was still on the council's work programme but there was no timeline.
Mayor Dave Cull said it was an issue still worth exploring and the report would be produced in due course.
Other issues had taken precedence over the report, which included some work with the regional council.
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Comments
Saving ratepayers money is never a priority with this council.
If you think forming a unitary council for Dunedin will result in cost savings you're sadly mistaken. In spite of what officialdom always says, there are never any savings in costs. The Regional Council would still need to exist as most of it's activities are outside the city boundaries, so there would still be a duplication of structures, with the added bonus that the current City structure would just get bigger as it took on more functions.
This has always been Vandervis's pet peeve, but he is barking up the wrong tree.
The real savings so far have been no resources wasted in writing this report in the first place.