Andrew Broxholme

There is a great deal in the news right now over local government reform, but what nobody is talking about is why it's such a priority, the simple answer is money.

Local government (and central government for that matter) are not living within their means, they continue to spend, funded by borrowing and increased taxes and are running significant deficits which they acknowledge but are not addressing with anywhere near sufficient urgency.

Households and individuals don't have that luxury, if our income falls or the costs of things we cannot do without rise, then we either no longer buy them or redirect money from other things, or, at last resort spend money we have saved (a very finite resource which some people don't even have), we can't borrow money and keep spending or the debt collectors will be at the door.

Our council is running a deficit in excess of $20 million, they have borrowings approaching $300 million against future rates income, this simply cannot continue and the blame lies at the feet of weak and ineffective leadership of our current and previous mayors and elected councillors.

Governance means you are in control. You don't ask council to find savings and accept a paltry million against a $20 million deficit; you tell them to cut $10 million out of the budget and insist it happens. This followed by an additional $10 million next year.

This will likely require significant cuts to the council workforce and possibly cuts to services, but the simple truth is that ratepayers cannot continue paying ever-increasing rates and they should not be allowed to continue to borrow against future tax revenue.

The mayor and council have a mandate to govern responsibly, and they must initiate reform of council as council won't voluntarily downsize.

The first step is transparency; the council must publish a detailed organisation chart showing who works in what departments and who reports to who.

Council staffing has grown a great deal in the last 10 years. How many of those are managers?

Who decides what services are essential and which ones can be cut – that’s what we pay the council we elect to do, but for many years it’s been paid council staff in control and elected council have simply been a box ticking exercise.

The ongoing conflict in the Middle East and the recent dramatic increase in energy costs are good reasons to throw out the latest annual plan and start again with a $10 million (minimum) reduction in outgoings.

I call on the mayor and elected council to take control. If they aren't prepared to do that, they should resign their council positions so we can hold new elections and have councillors and a mayor who will.