LOUIS PIERARD
Napier's hybrid ward and at-large system, imposed by the Local Government Commission for the election of councillors in October, has potential as a workable compromise.
It will appease those who believe Napier City Council is not truly representative of its ratepayers while at the same time preserving a core of
councillors in whom there can be confidence that they will have a city-wide perspective in their decision-making.
While those who lobbied to have wards are due the laurels, the LGC's decision means Napier will now conform to the electoral system in all but only three New Zealand cities that can claim to have a single community of interest.
One of the factors which appears to have sealed the commission's decision was, as Pilot City Trust facilitator Pat Magill pointed out in our report yesterday, the distressingly low voter turnout at the last local body elections.
In her submission last September from the Maraenui Community Council Trust urging the adoption of a ward or partial ward system, Maxine Boag said the "at large" system was undemocratic, with the current council drawn from only seven of the 21 area units in Napier's electoral areas.
She said Napier was a city of enormous diversity in wealth, with a huge concentration of citizens living in the most deprived areas. The city's poorest areas, including Maraenui, parts of Tamatea, Onekawa and Marewa, had no representative on council.
A part of democracy is also the decision not to have a role in the process; to opt out. Should it be assumed that those who bothered to vote in the 2004 local body elections did so only because they were attracted by candidates from their own suburbs? It is more likely that issues (or a lack of them) determined whether people voted.
Any measure able to reverse the abysmal response at election time is to be heartily applauded. Perhaps the lack of engagement will be stimulated by having designated ward candidates. That remains to be seen.
The commission has thrown down the challenge to communities claiming they are under-represented on the council. The challenge is now up to the people to make the most of it by having quality candidates with a sense of vision and who are capable of curing the despondency and raising the interest of as many citizens as possible in civic affairs.
