Appalling plans and phenomenal tax hikes are unacceptable, Russell Garbutt writes.
The revelation that the Central Otago District Council intends raising rates by an average of 21.4% is not only extraordinary but also unacceptable.
There are a number of factors that have led to this and I would suggest a simple solution.
The CODC claims that the entire Three Waters debacle is at the core of this phenomenal intended tax hike. This claim is specious at best and, I would suggest, disingenuous.
The last government tried to introduce an appalling plan to take over all of the local council’s assets with a new raft of bureaucratic overheads with little or no benefits to communities but a lot of benefits to the new departments and the individuals within them.
Thankfully, before being fully instituted, the government that wanted this nonsense was thrown out and the business of responsibility for drinking water, stormwater and wastewater remains in council’s hands.
While some city councils — Wellington and Dunedin — have ignored the imperative of planning for, installing new, and maintaining old, infrastructure, I don’t believe that this is the case with others. Central Otago and Christchurch are examples.
The only thing that altered in this whole shambolic process was that standards of water are now vested in a new body.
But saying that no change in ownership is going to lead to hugely increased costs for councils is nonsensical.
What is vital to understand is that councils are inherently driven by their staff. Councillors will deny this is the case because they don’t want to be viewed as anything other than being competent at governance. Staff will deny it because, like Sir Humphrey Appleby in Yes Minister, they don’t want to reveal the truth of who is actually running the show.
The process of setting the annual plan, or indeed the long-term plan, is simply one of council staff assembling a long list of things they wish to do, with the associated budgets for contractors, consultants and increased staffing underpinning the whole process.
It was C. Northcote Parkinson, way back in the 1950s, who developed his laws which should be required reading for any ratepayer. Among them were "work expands so as to fill the time available", and "the number of workers within public administration, bureaucracy or officialdom tends to grow, regardless of the amount of work to be done".
I would add two more: "More people are necessary to be employed to say ‘no’ or hinder progress than to agree", and "budgets will always increase, no matter how much work is actually entailed and will do so by the creation of more work".
Parkinson’s laws being followed — as they are — means the tail invariably wags the dog to the extent that the dog doesn’t know which way it is facing.
The solution I offer is a simple one. Councillors need to define what level of funding that their staff will receive to provide the core services their communities require. Not the other way round.
In the climate and for this annual plan, I suggest that all councils, in particular the Central Otago District Council, tell staff that rate increases will not exceed the rate of inflation. To do so in itself is a major contributor to inflation.
Another factor is the so-called consultation and community-input process. It is, as everyone who has taken part in it, a farce played out in three acts.
Firstly, crocodile tears from mayors expressing regret at such large increases but saying that it simply can’t be avoided. Secondly, various councillors appearing at meetings in the middle of the working day to listen to any community concerns followed by exhortations to write a submission to the council. Lastly, it is the complete disregard to any submission or suggestion made.
And finally there may be an epilogue where a token amount of increase in rates is subtracted — which had been inserted in the first place so as to be able to be deducted — to prove that the whole process is just perfect and that the elected representatives have all been listening closely.
— Russell Garbutt is a former deputy chairman of the Vincent Community Board.
