Waikato District Mayor Aksel Bech says any new council structure should be designed from the community level up, rather than beginning with a large regional authority and deciding later which powers it is willing to delegate.
Aksel, who will speak at Raglan Town Hall on Sunday, said protecting local decision-making had become one of the central issues raised as Waikato councils considered possible mergers under the Government’s Simplifying Local Government programme.
“What are all the things that community can decide, and therefore should?” he said.
Services that could not reasonably be managed locally, such as major wastewater infrastructure, could then be moved to a district or regional level.
“All the things you can’t do get pushed up, rather than let’s benevolently think about the things we can push down, because you end up never pushing enough delegation down.”
Options beginning to narrow
Aksel said discussions between Waikato councils were continuing, with around 10 separate council conversations under way across the region.
While the options remained open, he said they were beginning to narrow.
A whole-of-Waikato region model remained under consideration. This would retain the present regional footprint while combining regional and territorial council functions within a new structure.
Aksel said council chief executives and staff were likely to view this as the technically strongest option because the regional council already delivered services across the Waikato.
“We know how to do it, we know what the Waikato is, and we’ll get on with it,” he said.
Another option would divide the region into two broad catchment-based authorities – one in the west covering the Waikato and Waipā river systems, and another in the east covering the Hauraki Plains and surrounding areas.
Aksel said a Waikato River catchment model had some logic because councils and iwi within the area already had established relationships and joint management agreements.
However, proposed boundaries remained difficult because some councils, like Taupō, were also exploring relationships outside the Waikato region, including with western Bay of Plenty.
A third option based around Hamilton and its surrounding growth area appeared to have less support, particularly from councils such as Matamata-Piako.
Aksel said the complexity showed why no council could design its preferred structure in isolation.
“It is very much a moving beast.”
Concern about Hamilton’s influence
Aksel said rural communities and towns such as Raglan were concerned their voices could be overwhelmed within a large authority dominated by Hamilton’s population.
Hamilton has about 190,000 residents, compared with 528,000 across the wider region.
Under a model where representation was allocated solely by population, Hamilton would have considerable influence.
“When the Death Star comes into your galaxy, there is an effect. You can’t ignore it,” Aksel joked.
He said this did not necessarily mean a regional authority would fail communities outside Hamilton, but it reinforced the need to consider governance models that ensured local voice would be retained.
A review of the Auckland Super City had found people closer to central Auckland were generally more satisfied with amalgamation, while concerns were strongest in outer areas such as Rodney and Franklin.
Communities in those areas felt their rates were being redirected towards central Auckland rather than local facilities, although Aksel said he could not determine whether that perception reflected actual spending.
Different models for representation
One option would keep the existing council areas, each with its own councillors and mayor, while creating a new regional body above them.
Each local council could appoint a representative to the regional body, which would choose its own chair or regional mayor.
Aksel said this could allow councils to work together on regional issues while keeping familiar local representation.
Another idea, initially raised by Māori ward councillor Tilly Turner, would be to elect representatives according to communities of interest rather than geography alone.
Councillors could represent rural, coastal, urban or iwi interests.
Aksel said coastal communities such as Whāingaroa and Kāwhia could sometimes share more interests with each other than with geographically closer inland towns.
“That’s another thing we’re thinking about.”
Community boards or similar local bodies could also be given greater authority than they currently have over local assets, amenities and discretionary spending.
Aksel said residents wanted to retain access to representatives who understood their communities and could be directly held accountable.
“How do we still have a councillor like Lisa Thomson or Tilly Turner? How do we look them in the eye and go, ‘Oi, this is what’s important to me,’ or, ‘How are you spending my money?’”
More authority for community boards
Aksel campaigned for mayor on giving greater decision-making authority to community boards.
He said council was now considering placing an existing community wellbeing fund under community board control, allowing boards to allocate the money without first seeking full council approval.
The wider reform process could make local delegation even more important because communities risked becoming more distant from decision-makers under amalgamation.
Aksel pointed to the debate over boat ramp management in Raglan, where community representatives and local fishing interests had supported introducing a boat ramp fee but the proposal was not progressed by staff.
“If the community is aligned around something, surely the role of council is then to say, right, within the rules and regulations that we have to work within, this is how we achieve that.”
Under a larger council model, he said different communities should still be able to make different decisions about their own assets.
Reform moving too quickly
Aksel supported reconsidering local government structures but said the Government’s timetable was too fast.
“This should have been a much more thoughtful, considered, slower process.”
Councils are expected to submit high-level proposals to the Government in August.
The proposals must include merging with at least one other council, incorporate regional council functions and cover more than half of the Waikato region by land area or population.
They must also simplify the current system, provide some economies of scale, support the new resource management framework, while still maintaining local voice.
Aksel said the timetable left little opportunity to fully test assumptions or examine the long-term consequences of each model.
However, he believed reform could provide an opportunity to rebuild public trust in councils.
He said low voter turnout and public disengagement suggested many people no longer believed engaging with their council would change decisions.
“I think council’s lost [their] mandate.”
“People felt that, yes, you can get hold of council and tell them something, but it’s not going to change the outcome.”
Communities urged to speak up
Aksel said he had attended 19 community meetings in a matter of weeks and expected to attend about 16 more.
Feedback had consistently focused on two concerns: retaining a meaningful local voice and avoiding responsibility for the debt accumulated by other councils.
Although council information about the reform had received thousands of views online, formal submissions remained below 100 at the time of the interview.
Councils were using meetings, markets, social media and school networks to raise awareness before the consultation closed.
“One bit of my job is to make sure that everybody knows and has an opportunity to understand what’s happening, even if we don’t know quite where we’re going.”
Aksel said other Waikato mayors were hearing similar concerns about communities losing influence under amalgamation. The universal nature of this complaint could help build support for a new structure designed around stronger local decision-making.
“How do we tip it upside down? How do we design bottom-up rather than the traditional Westminster top-down?”
Aksel will discuss the latest reform options and answer questions at the Strengthening Local Voice and Local Government event at Raglan Town Hall on Sunday, 2-4pm.