What should local councils actually do?

[flyernzl]

We all like to moan about the activities of local authorities and the ever-increasing rates that they impose.

Beyond the basics - roads, rubbish and rats - should councils expand their activities into any other activities? Traditionally, ratepayers have financed quite a number of community assets like libraries, swimming pools and sports arenas. In recent years, we have seen the growth in non-core council businesses, including festivals, major sporting tournaments (Americas Cup yachting, World Cup Rugby), sponsoring plays and performing artists, and participating in semi-political statements (eg nuclear free zones).

So, if you ruled the world, what would your city/borough/county council do and not do?

[Mark_B]

My No. 1 "NOT DO" would be Sister City agreements.

At the Waimumu Field Days last week in Gore I said as much to the Editor of the Southland Times, using SDC's Sister City arrangement with Cinque Terra as an example, and, by some coincidence, in today's paper I read:

***

Sister-city trip to Italy to cost $30,000


By AMY MILNE and ALANA DIXON - The Southland Times

The Southland District Council trip to Cinque Terre in Italy this year will cost ratepayers about $30,000, according to the council.
A council delegation will visit its sister city for six days in May, a trip approved by the full council in November.
A council spokeswoman said it was still finalising itineraries and costs, but estimated it would pay $27,875 on travel and accommodation for mayor Frana Cardno and her husband Murray, Cr Paul Duffy and his wife Alison, senior staff member Phil Culling and council friendship committee members Ngarita Dixon and Jan Lowrey.
About $9000 of the costs would come from funds set aside for the council friendship committee.
Council chief executive Dave Adamson said it would be the first time a council delegation had gone to Cinque Terre. "What we're over there trying to do is have a look at what are the ways that we could work with them (and) learn from them, I suppose; bring back ideas from here and vice versa," he said.
Representatives from the Italian district had been to Southland twice.
The council was interested in learning how Cinque Terre managed its industries and maximised new business and eco-tourism opportunities, Mr Adamson said.
The Southland District Council has also a sister-city relationship with Wyong Shire, in New South Wales.

***

Imo you don't have to fly around the world to learn from, or share ideas with, someone else. Notwithstanding a more specific question as to why SDC is taking on the trip, and not the local promotions and enterprise development agency (Venture Southland).

[Davo36]

Well I've been having a lot of trouble with the council as I point out in this thread: http://www.propertytalk.com/forum/sh...ad.php?t=22149

I think they should vastly cut back on their services and really only undertake core activities such as:

• Rubbish collection.
• Maintenance of roads and footpaths.
• Maintenance of parks and reserves
• Maintenance of water, storm water and sewer networks.
• Management of building withing their boundary - done sensibly.
• Provision of libraries.
• Implementation and occasional tweaking of a district plan.

And that's about it IMHO.

But they like to control (by being involved and charging for) as many aspects of our lives as possible. They provide things like aquatic centres, put on like 30 Matariki events each year, dig up roads and lay all new paving, only to dig it up and relay it all again a few years later, get involved in any and every left leaning greenie cause ever conceived.

And on and on it goes, the list of things councils are involved in now would reach many pages long. And they have taken on the staff to do it. This all comes at great cost of course.

And of course the sister city thing is just one big junket.

[tricky]

Councils should not provide housing!

Councils should not be providing housing for 'deserving' tenants.
What skills do councils have at providing and managing property?
What skills do councils have at selecting and managing 'deserving' tenants?
All rental properties should be left to the private sector to provide. No ratepayers funds should be invested in housing.
The govt is tasked to look after those that need help and councils should not be involved in social welfare activities.
I don't believe housing is a core responsibility for councils.

[Perry]

Don't forget that many of the things they
meddle in are not driven by the Council or
ratepayers' choice, but driven by statute,
which is enacted by the even more meddle-
some W'gton woodenheads.
.

[Davo36]

That's a fair point Perry. The government passes on as much as possible to the local councils to do so that they don't have to raise taxation to do it themselves. In this way, the local council gets blamed for high rates, and the govt can go "Tsk tsk".

But the councils do also bring it on themselves. It's all about creating "multicultural, inclusive, active communities" and so on. All about social engineering, trying to get people to live the lives they think we should be living.

[One]

Where councils own decently-performing assets like ports and airports, they shouldn't sell them.

[AndrewK]

My No. 1 "NOT DO" would be Sister City agreements.

At the Waimumu Field Days last week in Gore I said as much to the Editor of the Southland Times, using SDC's Sister City arrangement with Cinque Terra as an example, and, by some coincidence, in today's paper I read:

***

Sister-city trip to Italy to cost $30,000


By AMY MILNE and ALANA DIXON - The Southland Times

The Southland District Council trip to Cinque Terre in Italy this year will cost ratepayers about $30,000, according to the council.
A council delegation will visit its sister city for six days in May, a trip approved by the full council in November.
A council spokeswoman said it was still finalising itineraries and costs, but estimated it would pay $27,875 on travel and accommodation for mayor Frana Cardno and her husband Murray, Cr Paul Duffy and his wife Alison, senior staff member Phil Culling and council friendship committee members Ngarita Dixon and Jan Lowrey.
About $9000 of the costs would come from funds set aside for the council friendship committee.
Council chief executive Dave Adamson said it would be the first time a council delegation had gone to Cinque Terre. "What we're over there trying to do is have a look at what are the ways that we could work with them (and) learn from them, I suppose; bring back ideas from here and vice versa," he said.
Representatives from the Italian district had been to Southland twice.
The council was interested in learning how Cinque Terre managed its industries and maximised new business and eco-tourism opportunities, Mr Adamson said.
The Southland District Council has also a sister-city relationship with Wyong Shire, in New South Wales.

***

Imo you don't have to fly around the world to learn from, or share ideas with, someone else. Notwithstanding a more specific question as to why SDC is taking on the trip, and not the local promotions and enterprise development agency (Venture Southland).

This is the sister city that when it was agreed to become sister cities a council representative was quoted in the paper stating:

The relationship with Cinque Terre would probably not be as active on a one-to-one level but would work more through technology, she said.

"With Cinque Terre we're probably be looking at focusing on creative options at a community level, so what we can do online and with video hookups ... there's a whole range of options but they'll be slightly different (to Wyong)."

Source

Then not even a year later........We're spending $5000, half the annual sister cities budget to send an entourage to Cinque terre. Oh well only $5000 for 5 people it must be a pretty budget trip.

But by the time February rolled around $5000 turned into $30000 and no more did you hear of relationships being forged through the use of modern technology.......

[Perry]

. . .and no more did you hear of relationships being forged through the use of modern technology.......

Screwing ratepayers is truly very old but very successful technology.

[Davo36]

No no no Perry, you have it all wrong.

They are looking after us. Providing vibrant, exciting communities.

And so what if it costs a bit more, we all want it don't we?

Seriously, lately I think of the council as being similar to:

1) The mafia. This is because they control their patch entirely. You want to do business in their area? That's fine but they want to say how it's done and they want a piece of the action.

2) Drug dealers. This is because they harm you and you pay them dearly for it.

[AndrewK]

** Disclaimer I work for a Council **

In my experience the way local govt is currently constructed creates a massive duplication of effort and expenses that us as ratepayers have to pay for.

With so many councils each left to find there own solutions and business processes to deliver the exact same services and adhere to the exact same legislation there is a massive overlap of business analyst, IT professionals, back office staff, systems and support costs.

If the councils were brought down to 12, one for each region and processes and systems standardised you could make a reasonable dent in the amount of rates we have to pay.

But it will never happen because as much as we hate the amount of rates we pay this is the cost of feeling like we live in a democracy and have local representation.

The council i work for was considered a model of decentralised local democracy and is to a large extent being used as a model for the structure of the new supercity in auckland.

yet internally we admit that the manner in which our council is constructed leads to a glut of back office staff,accountants and IT staff that would not be required if we operated in a more centralised manner and that those savings would be signifcant for a council of our size. but of course as we are all back office staff and the actual processes and systems required to manage the current model are never seen by the residents, ratepayers or elected members no one understands they are paying a premium in rates for their local representation.

[eri]

you should see the usa, australia, japan, switzerland, germany or any other of the many countries that run; state, prefecture, canton systems were the laws change from 1 side of a river or mountain to another

in this day and age of high speed communications there is just no need for their duplication yet it appears to be too big an ask for a level of gov. to vote itself out of existence

but it will happen eventually

probably not my lifetime though

[Davo36]

Heard an ad on the radio this morning. It was by North Shore City Council.

It's for 'Movies by Moonlight'. Yep NSCC put on free movies for their ratepayers. At the end of the ad it wrapped up with something like "North Shore City Council, providing great events for ratepayers..."

Here's the details: http://www.northshorecity.govt.nz/Le...Moonlight.aspx

If you look at a PDF here, it shows the full extent of their extravagance: http://www.northshorecity.govt.nz/Le...s-on-guide.pdf

They even have things like "Circus Skills Workshops" and (I'm not kidding) "How to be Spiritually Successful in a Material World".

Now these might be valuable skills, but is it the council's job to take money off of ratepayers and put on these kinds of courses?

David

[AndrewK]

The thing i love about North Shore City Council is they spent $400,000 dollars redeveloping their website. After they had been told they were being merged into the Supercity making their site redundant in the very near future.

[flyernzl]

So roads, rubbish and rats are in.
Sister Cities are out.
Pensioner housing is out.
Libraries and swimming pools are in.
Movie events are out.

Any other contributions?

(Don't forget, if you ruled the world your NZ Government would not be able to impose additional duties on your local Council).