Dalton hits out at governance report

Bill Dalton.

Democracy will be "sold out to the highest bidder" if an infrastructure advocacy group's report is taken seriously by the Government, says Napier Mayor Bill Dalton.

In a letter leaked to Hawke's Bay Today, Mr Dalton took aim at the report Integrated Governance Planning & Delivery, written by sector body the New Zealand Council for Infrastructure Development (NZCID).

"The local governance structure proposed by NZCID is alarming. The mayor would be all powerful and clearly open to influence," Mr Dalton said in the letter.

When asked about the letter, Mr Dalton confirmed he not only wrote the letter, he mailed it to "every mayor and chair in the country and said 'we need to be wary of this'."

According to the NZCID report, the mayor would be elected at large from the greater regional area. The body said the position would carry responsibilities including chairing council meetings, have both a deliberative and casting vote on council, appoint boards of council controlled organisations (CCOs) and council committee chairs, and chair an executive management board comprising the chairs and chief executives of each of the council controlled organisations.

While Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule had no comment on the letter, he did agree with Mr Dalton on one point. "The NZCID proposal gives too much power to the mayor," he said.

The Napier mayor was direct in his assessment of the overall report. It was "seriously flawed".

"NZCID's recommended approach is clearly in their best interests," his letter reads.

"They want big infrastructure projects to finance."

Mr Yule said the report was "a significant think-piece".

NZCID chief executive Stephen Selwood disagreed that his body's proposal for local government reorganisation gave the mayor too much power.

"The purpose of local democracy is for the communities to very clearly voice their expectations and set literally the expectations of the community in terms of service and quality," he said. "The only difference is the proposal that the mayor would appoint the CEs of any CCOs." It was quite a detailed point in a very macro context that clearly was open for debate.

"It is not unusual for the mayor to set up an appointments committee which would comprise of other councillors, and that committee makes a decision on the appointment of CEs or CCO appointments," he countered.

Mr Yule pointed out that the mayor currently has the ability to appoint the deputy mayor and committee chairs - a provision introduced in 2012. "It is a rarely used power as most, including myself, prefer this to be a council position," he said. "I disagree that the mayor should appoint the CEO and CCO members."

Furthermore, Mr Yule said the Indicative Council Management Structure (see graphic) was a straight business model and had limited regard for democracy.

Mr Dalton claimed that the NZCID wanted councils run through council controlled organisations. Despite their name, those organisations were simply not controlled by councils. "They are run very much like private companies, with an independent board and staff.

"Where does this leave councillors? Where does this leave democracy? Where does this leave the community? " he asked.

Local Government Minister Paula Bennett said she would legislate where necessary to enable greater use of CCOs to promote better integration of services, lift regional economies and provide more jobs.

A move Mr Yule supported, as CCOs are "a very good way of bringing independent technical expertise to the governance of major infrastructure".

Mr Dalton told the mayors and chairs that the Government needed to know the path they were going down was the wrong one. "We must tell them we value democracy and our sense of community. We must tell them their proposed erosion of those two values is unacceptable. If we fail to act, we will be remembered as those who sold democracy out to the highest bidder."