The hustings drama moves on towards what I hope will be a more interesting and voter-filled completion. The candidates have been criss-crossing the district making promises that the bulk of them are not capable of keeping given the bureaucratic nature of local body management – and restrictions of ever-changing legislation. I imagine that the Waipā council chief executive will be shaking her head at some of the utterances and preparing for the demanding onslaught of satisfaction of election-driven dreams.
Peter Carr, MC at Lauriston Village Mayoral Debate with Mike Pettit, Clare St Pierre and Susan O’Regan. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
On Wednesday I watched (on my screen) the riveting drama of an all-of-council workshop. The publicly available presentation took up the whole morning. The cut and thrust of the non-binding debate saw my coffee go cold as I sat, spell bound, at the drama that rolled out before me – and no doubt many others with time to spare.
My interest focussed on two items linked but still key discussions in their own right. The first was the just released public perception survey of recent council successes. In and of itself this is a well-run and well-presented piece of work now in its ninth year – which period of time permits wide and meaningful comparisons.
Key to me was this. The Waipā council (in its wider sense) remains again wallowing around 20 per cent of overall customer satisfaction. Dress it however you like this figure is abysmal and I imagine that the chief executive has a key performance indicator in her contract that council must ‘do (far) better’. If this was a public company the shareholders would be screaming for the blood of the chief and directors.
But local body stuff is a strange beast, and not all the opprobrium should fall on the shoulders of those professionally and governance related. Central government plays a far from fair game with regard to directing and bullying local body organisations.
Which brings me to my second observation of the workshop. Councillors were addressed (on a screen) by Steve McDowell who is a highly respected professional advising organisations on improving their governance. He told the elected folk that going into the next triennium members should look very clearly at matters that they should not address – instead drawing back and delegating it to council staff or the community boards. His words were extremely apt, clear and concise. Essentially keep your fingers out of matters that should not involve you. Three-hundred-page reports were mentioned – who has the time to produce these let alone read (and understand) them?
Clearly – and to their credit – this council has cleared out some deadwood recently. It has also brought in a challenging and professional chief to help take those changes further. At the same time the mayor desires to take the changes further.
In management and governance terms this makes sense provided that the table is de-cluttered, pet silly projects are sidelined and the Big Picture is permitted to roll out. But take care elected folk. That 20 per cent is going to bite you in a fleshy part of your anatomy if the satisfaction rot continues.
Lauriston Village Mayoral Debate, from left Susan O’Rgan, Mike Pettit, Clare St Pierre and MC Peter Carr. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
