Richard Steele with governor general Dame Cindy Kiro.
I’ve noted, with some small degree of satisfaction, a rising tide of opposition to regional councils over the last six months or so. Satisfaction, because for some time now, years actually, I don’t think this form of council, has been fit for purpose.
Richard Steele
The small shadow of doubt I have is that the replacement suggested seems the be an amalgam of district mayors, and I wonder if they would be any more capable, of doing a better job.
If mayors are elected because of their ability to campaign successfully, rather than by their proven business acumen, then I don’t want a bar of that model.
It has seemed to me for years that regional councils were top heavy with remote and highly paid staff in head offices, achieving little and surviving by a model that relied on annual rate increases to survive, with no meaningful or measurable outcomes.
I even hear rumblings of new and bigger head offices being needed, at a time when shrinking local government would be a more sensible way to get ahead.
I really believe that if your very survival, relies on annual rate increases to be successful, then you are in the wrong business. Inflation, is still enemy number one in my book, and you don’t have to look very far to see why.
That so many farmers are struggling to survive, even with record levels of commodity prices being paid, is a testament to record cost increases, blowing away any income improvement. Not just rural people either, take a walk around any small town, and see how much prosperity there is about for yourself, again as a direct result of costs being out of control.
We all have to run faster to stay in the same place.
Except councils, who seem to rely on their inherent ability to put up their charges every year regardless of whether they achieve anything or not
I’m also led to believe that some regional councils have huge assets. Some inherited port shares and some commercial property accumulated. I don’t know how.
That seems to me to be like amassing a share portfolio in the good times for your family’s future, but in not selling, just because the kids are cold and hungry .
I know good people abound, we see them at the coalface, working with the landowners, to improve the environment, and somehow, that must continue. Just not at any cost , and not at any unsustainable cost.
I should have an alternative to suggest, and I don’t. Not really, and that is my argument’s weakest point. It’s just that I’m sure the current model is not working, and that not talking about it will not fix up the mess they are in either.
