New Government reforms requiring urgent submissions by council made up the majority of discussion at the first Invercargill City Council meeting for the year.
Mayor Tom Campbell said the word ‘tsunami’ had been thrown around before Christmas by Government officials, warning councils of what was to come.
As a result, ICC staff have been working hard in a very short time frame over the Christmas holidays, finding the best way to respond.
The Simplifying Local Government reform proposing that regional councillors be replaced with a Combined Territorial Board made up of Mayors, was likely going to clash with Southland’s own territorial authority review underway.
In a report to council, Rhiannon Suter, manager – strategy, policy and engagement said there were some timeframe clashes with the Local Government Commission process.
“On this basis it is suggested to propose to Government if Southland democratic elected representatives can reach agreement on a proposed structure for Southland, that this be allowed to proceed without the Local Government Commission process concluding.”
Mayor Campbell wrote in his submission, that Government considered how the two processes may more effectively align.
The ICC supports the proposal to move towards more of a unitary authority model but has concerns with the proposed structure of Combined Territory Boards through the transition phase.
Mayor Campbell told the meeting they won’t get to the point where a board of mayors will be trying to run the regional authority, because it had to be approved by each of the Southland councils collectively.
“The Territorial Local Authority Mayors have not been elected to deal with the complex technical resource management issues governed by the regional councils. In addition, there is the simple matter of the current workload on the TLA Mayors who are already working more than full time dealing with business as usual and regulatory reform matters.”
He proposed that mayors be joined by the existing regional council chairs, as well as by a second elected representative from each Territorial Local Authority, to be delegated by council.
The Government also released a proposal on rates capping, which they have communicated will likely result in a range of rates limits between 2 – 4% depending on the inflationary and growth environment relevant to each council.
Rhiannon told the meeting the proposal was technical in nature and there were gaps in the information, which made it difficult to understand exactly how it would work.
Chief executive Michael Day told the meeting that the minimum targeted rate has not actually ever been met, and that made it problematic.
He said there would be issues around delivering the city’s capital programmes, and in particular in relation to depreciation and the ability to deliver on renewals.
There was also discussion around how council would be able to continue funding the city’s stadium and new museum, and an unintended consequence would be that council pushed them back onto central Government.
“It’s clear that it’s going to be hellishly complicated to calculate,” Mayor Campbell said.