An independent adviser to the joint water services working group Ōpōtiki District Council is party to has been critical of last week’s decision to defer public consultation on forming a multi council-controlled organisation (Multi-CCO).

However, Ōpōtiki Mayor David Moore has defended the decision.

Former four-term Ōtorohanga mayor Max Baxter, now an independent adviser to the Joint Waters Working Group made up of Rotorua Lakes, Whakatāne, Kawerau and Ōpōtiki district councils, was invited to speak at a Whakatāne District Council meeting on Thursday last week. He was asked how Ōpotiki councils decision would affect the Whakatāne council.

Baxter told Whakatāne councillors he was disappointed with the Ōpōtiki decision.

He said councils should not become bogged down with considering all the reforms together.

They needed to consider each one as they came and if it was to go ahead with a Multi-CCO it needed to act as quickly as possible.

He also urged them to think beyond the next 10 years.

He described the Multi-CCO decision as “mokopuna decision making”.

“We’re making decisions that are going to affect our districts in 50-100 years’ time.”

Moore said the Government’s two reform programmes – the Head Start programme to reduce the number of councils in New Zealand by forcing them to merge, and the Local Waters Done Well programme, encouraging councils to form Multi-CCOs to provide water services – were connected.

The Government has said councils would be informed about whether their proposals for amalgamation would be accepted some time this month.

Moore said whether the Head Start proposal was accepted or not would affect the Local Waters Done Well decision.

“We’ve got the do the right thing by our community. We have a very limited budget and team. We can’t afford to be consulting on things that may not happen.

“When we know what the Head Start decision is, we can go out to our community with the issues on both.”

The working group was formed in December to investigate setting up a (Multi-CCO) for water services jointly owned by the four councils.

Findings from an assessment carried out on behalf of the group by MartinJenkins consultants showed while there would be little savings made over the first 10 years from forming a Multi-CCO, it would increase council’s ability to deliver infrastructure requirements through increased borrowing power, provide access to a greater pool of expertise and have cost benefits when looked at over a 30-year time period.

There would also be some benefits to setting up a MC-CCO with only three councils if one pulled out. However, the benefits would be less.

The Whakatāne council has selected setting up a Multi-CCO as its preferred option.

The Ōpōtiki council decided last week to defer any decision about going out for consultation on a preferred option until it had a clear direction from central government about whether the Eastern Bay councils’ Head Start proposal to amalgamate into a single unitary council would be accepted.

Yesterday, Rotorua Lakes Council identified keeping water services in-house as its preferred option but will seek community feedback before making a final decision in December.

Kawerau District Council will make a decision on its preferred option on September 30.

Another cost for councils

Ōpōtiki Mayor David Moore said councils were going to have to get up to speed very quickly with two pieces of legislation passed through Parliament yesterday.

The Natural Environment and Planning Acts will replace the Resource Management Act, which guided most of the work carried out by regional councils, which are being disestablished.

That role will be absorbed into unitary councils formed through district council mergers.

He supported an announcement by Local Government New Zealand yesterday that central government needed to address the costs of the planning reform.

LGNZ said official estimates showed local government faced around $860 million in costs to get the new planning system up and running.

President Rehette Stoltz said the focus must now shift to how to implement the new system so the burden didn’t fall solely on ratepayers.

“Budget 26 contained $294 million for Government to implement the new system, which is an acknowledgement the costs can’t be funded through baselines. We expect the same principle to apply to councils on the front line,” Stoltz said.

Moore agreed that the cost to councils needed to be addressed.

“[Central government] has got to be realistic about what they are asking us to do.

“Every time they change the rules on something, we have to implement it. They make the changes and expect us to pick up the pieces and deal with it and try and figure out how to not make it a bigger burden on the ratepayer.”