Local Government issues

Frank Newman is a Whangarei District Councillor. He has an excellent post at NZCPR that sums up pretty tidily what is wrong with local government. I am pretty confident the problems and issues are much the same at North Shore City Council.

Some pertinent quotes:

Today's Council is more like a social agency that thinks it has to deal with every social itch and scratch. Now virtually everything is considered “essential core business”, including stadium, swimming pools, athletic tracks, libraries, tree strategies, strategies for youth, positive aging strategies, walking strategies, cycling strategies, disability strategies, cultural strategies, heritage strategies, strategies for Maori participation in the decision making process, policies for immigrants, plans for civil defence, annual plans, ten year plans (which are reviewed every three years), master plans, structure plans, coastal management plans, district plans, regional plans, and on and on.

On Wednesday for example, we will be discussing a motion “That the WDC expresses its concern regarding the threat of extinction of the Maui’s dolphin species” and “That Council supports other Councils by communicating this concern to the Ministers of Conservation and Fisheries.”

We also have more than our fair share of issues arising from the “politics of phobia”. Over the last three years we have had to discuss the apparently imminent threats of genetic engineering, global warming, bird flu, and tsunami. Remarkably our district has managed to survive all of these crises, but I am not sure our many hours of discussion on these issues can be credited for our lucky escape. It is more likely the phobia were never the threat some assumed them to be.

On core council spending:

Eleven of the fourteen councillors considered funding a hip-hop concert to be a core role of council. Fortunately, there have been occasions when councillors have said “no” to funding requests but these have been rare – like the application to fund a contest to see who could stuff six American hotdogs into their mouth the fastest. I mention this to illustrate the nature of the requests that local authorities are being asked to consider.

And on spending and rates increases:

It is council spending that is causing the rate increases. I agree with the Report of the Local Government Rates Inquiry that “Local Government needs to show more restraint in its expenditures…” However, I doubt that this will happen unless ratepayer protest forces it as none will want to admit that they are not showing fiscal restraint.

If councillors were to give ratepayers an informed and clear choice about rates and spending, I think most (75% is my guess) would say do the basics and keep rate increases to a level that bears some relationship to changes in household incomes.

All of this is excellent reading and imperative for any candidate. And all of this is precisely why Shore Can candidates need to be elected this October: so we can Cap Rates, curb out of control spending, and return the council to its core activities.