The Long Term Plan Responses

Well if you made a submission on the Long Term Plan you can view the staff responses and recommendations that will go to the councillors at the 5 June meeting.  From page 67 (part 2) you can view the recommended decisions by topic along with submission summaries for each topic.  I find the responses more interesting as they are rife with staff comment.  I reiterate that ICC staff don’t lie (not my experience anyway) but I always note that it’s never the full answer or ambiguous at best.  The things they don’t answer always crack me up, I think it’s because they can’t or just don’t want to.

I must say well done to Alan Swallow for pointing out that the men’s shelter of Salvation Army receives nothing from ICC.  Now they have an extra $5,000.  Of course drainage for a sports field got $50,000.  I know what I consider far more important within the community.  At least they haven’t offered to foot the bill for the whole drainage project.

Thankfully they (we) will not be putting any money toward Rugby Park but the cynic in me thinks it will come about in the future, empires to build.

Urban Rejuvenation has now got a suggested $300,000 ($100k proposed) to split between all the relevant communities.  Another $140k per year for the following nine years.

Anyway from page 107 (part 3) are the responses, go through and see how they responded to your suggestions.  You can access it here.

 

Surely They’re Taking The Piss

Hawkes Bay are getting a $2.5M jousting field and amenities?  I thought it was a wind up but it’s not April Fool’s Day is it?

Says Mayor Yule: “We were approached by the International Jousting Federation, which has made a convincing case that jousting is the sport of the future. Apparently the Chinese love it. Right here in New Zealand, we already have 23 competitive jousters, many of them from Central Hawke’s Bay, and that number is projected to grow astronomically over the coming decade as sport enthusiasts look for the greater excitement of blood sports. I have visions of an International Jousting and Swordplay Academy. We see ourselves trading up … a big, sturdy lance that can inflict mortal wounds for a little stick that nicks ankles.”

Wow, 23 competitive jousters, it’s the sport of the future….but wait there’s more….this guy probably owns every infomercial gadget for sale at 2am.   Still skeptical that it’s even for real.

Bar The Bill

The person who highlighted this to me had not seen my post on the Invercargill City Charitable Trust but I can see the correlation between them.  Submissions on the Bill close on June 21 and the Gaming Trusts are actively promoting the downfalls of the set up proposed by the Maori Party ( supported by National to the public hearing stage).

I haven’t put a lot of thought into the reduction of venues in certain areas or even confirmed whether the website’s claims are correct, i.e,

It is interesting to note that funding for the treatment of problem gambling was recently cut by the Ministry of Health – due to a lack of demand.

My initial concern is this:

The majority (80%) of any donations generated from any machines that might remain would be controlled and distributed by councils and where applicable community board appointed committees.

The Explanatory notes of the legislation say: (underlining my emphasis)

However only a small proportion of the pokie gamblers’ losses are distributed in grants for community benefit back into the same communities that generated them. This is because the majority of the gamblers’ losses go to pay machine site rentals, machine maintenance, trustee fees for pokie trust members, and other administrative costs. Gambling losses are occasionally siphoned off into corrupt purposes and other rorts; go into paying taxes; and into grants made to organisations based in other local authorities altogether, sometimes even in the other Island, or to national bodies.

They better show some evidence, it’s not the impression I have of gaming trusts but am sure everything is open to abuse BUT they think handing the role over to councils and community boards is the answer!  Central government have other avenues to remedy those issues.  Who are those taxes going to? Government.  Trustee fees?  Could be remedied by Constitution requirements or Remuneration Authority.   Corruption and rorts?  Do they think that doesn’t happen in central or local government?  What about the Trustee’s Act or THE POLICE?  Where the money goes is already declared in newspapers and online by law.  I haven’t seen any that distribute outside of their area, be interesting to see some examples of this.  Small proportion?  Legislation already imposes how much needs to be distributed doesn’t it?  Transparency resolves a lot of issues too.  A LGOIMA type arrangement for all gaming trusts would ensure transparency  if the public have an independent body for complaints and concerns (make sure local government has the same too!)

Here’s their idea:

Fourth, this Bill also phases out the “pokie trusts” or corporate societies as the distributors of community benefit money from pokie machines, and within a year’s time passes over responsibility for these distributions to special committees of local authorities with a majority of representation from community organisations, modelled on the Creative New Zealand creative communities fund committees and the former Hillary Commission local committees. The creative communities fund committees in particular already make full use of the provisions of clause 31(3) of Schedule 7 of the Local Government Act 2002 which permit councils to appoint members to council committees and subcommittees who are not members of the council. Every local authority in New Zealand is granted money from Creative New Zealand on a per head of population basis and distributes it through a council committee which has one or more councillors on it but a majority of whose members are drawn from knowledgeable people from arts and cultural groups in that district. This Bill would set up a parallel system to grant money to community, social-service, iwi, and sporting groups in their district on a fair, informed, transparent, and accountable basis.

I don’t know if the Creative NZ set up works or not but question whether having people from the relevant sectors and local government is the right way to go.  Wouldn’t there be more conflicts arise?  In a small town like Bluff, the people on the committee would face constant ‘attention’ from those wanting to obtain funding.  The conflicts register alone would be enormous!

Naive pricks!  On one hand government are trying to get councils to focus on core issues then they present this sort of bill.  More funding for pet projects?

Fire The Whole Council

I’ll make it clear, I do not condone ICC’s proposed rate increases but we should be lucky we’re not in Kaipara and especially not Mangawhai.

Kaipara District Council voted today to endorse and adopt a draft Long Term Plan (LTP) for 2012 – 2022 with an average rates increase for 2012 – 2013 of 31%.

Opportunity For Upskilling

It seems the annual LGNZ Conference is near (July).

So what benefits can it provide to our elected representatives.  Unfortunately it’s after ICC make their decision on Rugby Park but they may still need to attend this workshop (NB: it’s a real workshop not a meeting in disguise)

Local Government’s Role in Growing the Economy
Sport and recreation make a huge contribution to the New Zealand economy. Sport New Zealand and the New Zealand Recreation Association will demonstrate the value of local government’s contribution to the economy through its investment in sport and recreation.

This may not suit ICC and their cloak and dagger approach to public safety (they may have to move it be taken In Committee)

Earthquake Prone Buildings
This workshop explores the latest in policy and practice regarding earthquake prone buildings.

Considering the increased rating burden ICC have proposed for our business sector they may not be welcome here

Phil O’Reilly
An interactive session with Business NZ CE, Phil O’Reilly, who will give you a snapshot of business in NZ-the up’s and downs-and invite you to ask questions and comment

This I think could be interesting and if there are ways councils can make it easier then it should be investigated

Andrew Hamilton
Get off the Grass! How Councils can help start ups grow

Food For Thought

I’m doing my verbal submission today and it’s probably a good time to reflect on how and why I am interested in local government.  I came to realise that how we are governed and who is governing us can have a great impact on various aspects of our lives.  Don’t whinge about your rates if you haven’t had your say on the issues that have caused your rates to increase.

Don’t take my word for it though

Local government is the foundation of democracy, if it fails, democracy will fail.

– Robert W. Flack

Men well governed should seek after no other liberty, for there can be no greater liberty than a good government.

– Sir Walter Raleigh

Government is a trust, and the officers of the government are trustees; and both the trust and the trustees are created for the benefit of the people.

– Henry Clay

A Good Read

I came across an interesting blog, BayBuzz, from the Hastings/ Napier area with  a local government focus and a brief that includes rattling cages:-)  It seems they have FIVE councils!

Local Government Official Information And Meetings Act

Council have, over the years, got better at putting council, committee and board agendas out on time (and somewhat complete) but given this statement from the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act

In this Part, unless the context otherwise requires,—

meeting, in relation to a local authority, means, subject to subsection (2),—

• (a) any annual, biennial, triennial, ordinary, or extraordinary meeting of a local authority; and

• (b) any meeting of—

  • (i) any committee or standing committee or special committee or subcommittee of a local authority; and

  • (ii) any meeting of any joint standing committee or joint special committee appointed by 2 or more local authorities, and any subcommittee of any such committee—

  if—

  • (iii) any function, duty, or power is conferred or imposed on that committee or subcommittee by any enactment; or

  • (iv) that committee or subcommittee is empowered to exercise or perform, on behalf of any local authority or any committee of any local authority, any function, duty, or power conferred or imposed on any local authority, or on any committee of any local authority, by or under any enactment or bylaw

When are we going to see meeting notices, agendas and minutes from all ICC’s joint committees?

Statements of intent and quarterly reports from all the CCO’s and true transparency?  One step at a time…
agendas would be a good start.

Is That Legit?

ICC are suggesting a new targeted rate for Heritage Facilities but they aren’t going to use it to obtain rates this year.  We therefore do not know the amount of the new rate but are being ‘consulted’ on it through the LTP.  Usually a new targeted rate would have a Statement of Proposal which would explain everything but they’ve chosen to add it to the LTP and all we have is on page 283 of the Draft LTP.

Given that targeted rates are set under Section 16 and it states

A local authority may set a targeted rate for 1 or more activities or groups of activities if those activities or groups of activities are identified in its funding impact statement as the activities or groups of activities for which the targeted rate is to be set.

If nothing is planned for this year, how can it be ‘identified in its funding impact statement‘?

I will now be checking subsequent years to see if it appears or are they just going to spring it on us and say we consulted (but without all the relevant information so you couldn’t make an informed decision).  I see a ‘do over’ coming on that one, dodgy…

Oops, I(CC) Did It Again!

So it begins again, remuneration for elected members for 2012/2013.  According to reports from other councils the indicative pool recommendations sent out by the Remuneration Authority are due back by 7 May 2012.

Keep in mind that all councils and boards must make a resolution to accept the pool and any ‘dissent’ must be recorded.  Not a problem you would think…except that Bluff  had a meeting (2 April) and the next is not until 14 May…after the date it needs to be returned to the Remuneration Authority.  Deja vu, same balls up as last year!

I had this post in my drafts and was waiting to see if ICC included remuneration on the council agenda for 24 April but in light of the GDC media attention over remuneration I’m sure a councillor from ICC is chasing it up in time for the council meeting…still too late for Bluff though.