Simplifying Local Government, with three options being circulated by Thames Coromandel District Council, and most other Waikato District Councils, I have included a diagram of my view of what a single unitary authority structure could look like, and how it would meet governments five criteria.
One Council Model
This model is based on fair and effective representation as described in the current local government act. This one council model contains two layers as indicated, the three local areas as shown, northwest, northeast and southern. Each has representation elected from the current district wards, and they would be resourced to govern local functions and community facilities such as libraries, parks, pools, licensing etc. The other layer of councillors are also elected out of the three regions, with population percentage dictating 4 from northwest and 2 from both northeast and southern. My suggestion would be to elect a Chair from within this eight, as I don’t believe electing a Mayor from across the whole Waikato region would necessarily get the best outcome, because to run a campaign across the whole region would tend to support a Hamilton candidate due to the population base, and it also would be expensive, potentially benefitting someone with the deepest pockets.
Whole of region functions
Functions at this level would be whole of region based, including environmental and catchment management, regional transport and economic development. I also believe a number of other functions could benefit from being brought up from district level to regional level. Functions such as strategic planning, roading, waste management, building consents and even dog licensing. Why have 10 district councils doing dog licensing when one could do it regionally, after all you can licence your vehicle online nationally, why not your dog regionally? These services are all supported locally by people at place as they are currently.
40, not 200 elected members
As you can see this model then supports 40 elected members across the region, down from the current 200 plus, makes things simpler. Having a regional view, I have seen the benefit of being able to have targeted rates for different levels of benefit as well as a general rate across the whole region. An example of this is the $15 a rating unit for the Natural Heritage Fund, which currently supports 29 community groups undertaking pest management on the peninsula to the tune of around $2.5 million. Also regional rating helps support surf lifesaving, the rescue helicopter as well as our maritime staff. Over $8 million has been spent on the on river and catchment management this year, and regional council maintains over $1 billion of flood and drainage assets. This shows that general rates from the city help support a huge amount of work in the rural areas, which protect people, property and infrastructure.
Two of the questions/concerns I have heard while presenting this model to district councils, are loss of local voice and how will different debt levels be dealt with. Firstly, I believe this model delivers fair representation. As you can see Thames Coromandel ward would have 3 councillors and the ability to elect a councillor for the wider region, also this is the layer which would stand up committees with plenty of options for community voice, all while being properly resourced, unlike the current community boards. It also comes down to the quality of the elected people around the table.
Secondly, existing council debt could be ring fenced, with that districts ratepayers paying targeted rates until the debt is cleared and rates across the region can be harmonized. Finally I don’t believe there will be anything much in rates reductions as the work still needs to be done, but efficiencies will allow for more work to be done for the same level of rates and a small amount from many is better than a large amount from a few.
The Government wants to deal with regions. We have seen this in resilience and roading funding, and also regional deals. We are stronger as a region in leveraging funding and support, and connected in many ways across the Waikato, from families and business to sports and recreation. One council, local representation, decisions made at the right level, Council-wide decisions made at the Waikato level and local decisions made locally.
