New government demands could transform how councils operate and represent their communities, writes Tim Senior

I’m feeling very sorry for the nation’s mayors, including our own, just now. On top of the work they already do, the Government has demanded that they do much more.

First, they were told to devise a new way of providing drinking water, storm water and wastewater services in collaboration with other councils. A huge and complex task.

Then, on May 5, another even bigger demand was thrown at them. Amalgamate with other councils to simplify local government or we’ll do it for you. And they have three months to do it.

Amusingly, the press release from ministers Chris Bishop and Simon Watts was entitled, “Councils invited to fast-track local reform”.

Its contents were no invitation; they were a requirement.

The ministers have given very vague reasons why these reforms are necessary. They say that too often, the system is tangled in duplication, disagreements, and decisions that defy common sense.

I can’t see a lot of evidence for this, though that is not to say some reform is not necessary as the last reform of local government was in 1989, and the world has changed since then.

Our council has done a good job of responding quickly by asking for public feedback. These reforms will affect every one of us in many ways, so it’s important that as many of us as possible provide that feedback (go to connect.odc.govt.nz.)

However, some of the questions being asked are difficult to answer without perhaps much understanding of what district and regional councils do. So, there are some fundamental questions we need to ask ourselves to make sure we provide meaningful feedback.

First, what do district and regional councils do?

As far as district councils are concerned, the panui on the back page of the Opotiki News of June 4 provided a pretty clear graphic of what ours does.

It lists 24 different services, some obvious, some less so.

In the latter category there are things like maintaining the aerodrome and making drone rules, providing CCTV cameras in the town centre, inspecting food premises to ensure compliance with health rules, alcohol outlet licensing and providing and maintaining all kinds of pipes underground that we all use every day but most of us never think about.

Most of what the Bay of Plenty Regional Council does is probably much less understood by most people. As it says on its website, fundamentally it’s “responsible for making sure the local environment is managed sustainably, so people and the environment can thrive”.

A quick look at their home page suggests they provide 11 regional plans and around 50 different services, from maritime (navigational safety and oil spill response) to river management (mostly building and maintaining stopbanks), working with landowners to protect streams and biodiversity, biosecurity, environmental and scientific data gathering (including a lab to process hundreds of water and other samples every day), a range of mapping services (which includes producing many specialised services for district councils). The list goes on. Check out the drop-down lists on their home webpage.

Then there are many questions that follow:

Are there functions that we (or the government) no longer want councils to carry out?

Are there to be any new functions? The Resource Management Act is to be replaced with new legislation and, since we don’t yet know what that looks like, the answer is anyone’s guess.

However, I suspect we can expect much less focus on the environment.

And then what is it we’re trying to simplify?

How do we do this in a way that is more efficient and effective? Will the result provide us with better value for our rates?

How can we avoid the duplication of two or more unitary councils both providing the current regional council? How do we do all this in a way that all of us feel listened to and are represented in the new arrangements?

In its questionnaire our district council is asking us for our thoughts mostly around the very last question.

To be fair, the ministers’ press release did ask all the questions I’m asking (except the first one) and I think we should all be carefully considering all these things so we can provide meaningful feedback to support our mayors in their unenviable task.