The council has issued a request for proposal (RFP) for the "QLDC of the Future", an "organisational and operating model review" to essentially design a "right-sized, high-performing" council.
RFPs close on May 15. The expected contract start date is June 29.
Information uploaded to the government’s electronic tendering site, Gets, said the redesign was in response to "multiple local government reforms in New Zealand" and "critical" technology trends, including the emergence of artificial intelligence.
Reforms included Local Water Done Well, the Resource Management Reform, Local Government (Systems Improvements) Amendment Bill — designed to refocus councils on core services and cost-effective infrastructure, increase performance reporting, transparency and reduce regulatory burden to ease pressure on rates — and local government simplification.
The latter was described as "longer-term reforms expected to reshape council functions, responsibilities and operating models, likely commencing from 2027 onwards and requiring future-ready capability and assumptions-based planning".
The government announced in November it was proposing to do away with the 11 remaining regional councils, including the Otago Regional Council (ORC) and replace them with combined territories boards comprised of district mayors.
Local Government Minister Simon Watts said the government intended to make announcements about simplifying local government once decisions had been made.
However, ORC chairwoman Hilary Calvert said at last week’s council meeting she had been told by New Zealand First MP Mark Patterson the territorial boards idea was not a favoured option for the government and it appeared unlikely regional councils would be out of business before the end of the current triennium.
Regardless, the QLDC, which employed 600 people throughout the district, had already decided to do its review.
Its RFP states it intends to run a "staged, repeatable design cycle" to address the most immediate and "known impacts" of the reforms initially, which could be re-run as future reforms are confirmed.
"Phase one" focused on the "most pressing and time-critical changes", including effects of moving to the water services council-controlled organisation and the evolving planning and regulatory environment.
It would involve "design work" across property, infrastructure, planning and development operational functions, including asset management, project delivery, infrastructure operations and council-wide corporate and support functions, such as policy, finance, legal and communications.
Questions in the RFP include which functions should be centralised, how roles which spanned "water and non-water activities" should be redesigned to ensure the council remains "viable and sustainable" and whether there is sufficient work to justify full-time roles.
The council also asked how its operating model and organisational structure should be designed "to remain flexible and adaptable to future reform".
Phase two design questions include what new obligations, operating constraints and performance expectations will arise from reforms.
The initial proposed contract term was for two years, with an option for the council to extend it by a further year, the RFP states.
