Mike Keir and Crystal Beavis were both new Waikato District councillors three years ago
First, thanks to all those who voted for me, I had a strong win which indicates what I have been saying resonates with voters. Now I have to deliver on that commitment.
Mike Keir
To recap, in my last column I quoted a Waikato District Council management statement about value for money.
“This trend highlights increasing dissatisfaction with the costs of fees, rates, and water charges. Considering the current economic climate, this downward trend is expected to continue for the foreseeable future.”
They were talking about ratepayer satisfaction with council. We need to reverse this trend, not just blindly accept it. Things need to change. Voters have given us a mandate. My question: Is this possible? I asked you to vote for the right people. You’ve done your part, we have a new Mayor who campaigned on change. Let’s see what we can do.
I admit it will not be easy. Local Government is not an agile speedboat, it is a super tanker, cumbersome and hard to turn. Councils are risk averse, with good reason as central government has made them the fall guy for all sorts of issues, leaky buildings, poorly administered consents, health and safety issues among others. The culture is focused on steady as she goes, not innovation and new ideas. However, there are some exceptions, for instance roading is trialling some good initiatives within the new contract model.
Local Government is mandated to take responsibility for all manner of things, one of the more ridiculous being climate change. As I have said before the best we can do here is run an efficient, resilient organisation. The peat fires in the north Waikato released many more tonnes of carbon that WDC could limit in 100 years and we are seeing the United States experience its earliest and coldest winter since well before climate change became a thing.
This issue is not for council to lead and waste money on, we need to stick to core business. As an aside, I am personally nearly 50,000 trees in credit. These will never be harvested, forming a permanent carbon sink.
Local Government New Zealand is another area of concern, while it does not directly cost us a lot of money it is a poor lobby group for the sector. Government does not take them seriously for good reason. We need to stand up ourselves and align with like-minded councils to tell government to back off the mandates they are putting on us. If they want cooperation with their agenda then they need to help us too. Government is supportive of this approach.
Council needs to start communicating more honestly and transparently but I am already seeing that this will be difficult, the culture of presenting a smiley face is hard to change. I am concerned about the direction of our waters reforms and that they will not deliver what is needed.
However I am hopeful this triennium will be different from the extremely frustrating last one, that in three years’ time our council is able to point to meaningful change and deliver on what you have asked for.
Once again thank you for your support on this.
