Jacoby Poulain: Power needed to be effective

Jacoby Poulain is a Hastings District Council Flaxmere Ward councillor and a Hawke's Bay District Health Board member.

The amalgamation train has left the Hawke's Bay station and, generally, you're either on board, still deciphering whether the ride is going in your direction, or you're in the opposing camp refusing to get on.

Alternatively you couldn't care less either way. I do care and here's why.

The Local Government Commission has released its draft reorganisation proposal for Hawke's Bay. The commission is proposing a "whole of Hawke's Bay" approach involving one council supported by a layer of boards which would represent established communities of the region. The proposal is designed to lift the performance of Hawke's Bay by providing strong and unified leadership and is now open to public submission.

There are elements of the proposal I emphatically support, there are others however I have concern over.

The proposal seeks to decrease bureaucracy, red tape and duplication that is evident across our region because each council has its own set of rules and regulation. A unified council will adopt one set of rules which makes dealing with our local government easier and more efficient. I fully support this direction. I also support the notion of a unified Hawke's Bay voice to be heard more strongly in central government's halls of power. This way, we can compete more readily alongside the already amalgamated regions who have consolidated their voice and direction and thus arguably their influence over central government's future policy decision-making and resource allocation.

Better for the whole though must also translate into better for the individual parts, or in this case the distinct communities and individual families and people within the proposed region. Just because power is consolidated does not automatically mean it will be put into effect so that the trickle-down benefits reach individual communities and families.

The proposal says the representation of distinct communities will be strengthened by community boards that allow more localised decision-making. Community boards are a link between the council and the relevant community.

The risk though is that robust powers and budget to represent our distinct communities can be withheld or not adequately provided for by the council. Without any meaningful powers and/or budget, the role of a community board is little more than a voice that submits submissions or requests in the same manner as any person of the community can, or is a collective of hands with a begging bowl that can easily be dismissed by the superior power or council.

Contrast this with a local board that has a co-governance role with the council, different and arguably stronger legislative powers and protection than a community board, and has more control over their own budgets. Currently legislation doesn't allow the creation of local boards in Hawke's Bay but may soon. Boards with stronger powers and resources would serve our distinct communities more robustly within the overall structure, as would a similar consideration for Maori.

Although I applaud the proposal suggesting the creation of a Maori board as a standing committee, it doesn't go far enough. Again without any real power, this voice can easily be dismissed.

I suggest that articulating, and the more specific the better, how the final proposal would benefit each distinct community quantifiably in terms of not only economic but social development and how proportionate resources and support will be guaranteed to be attributed to each such community would do much to persuade individuals within these communities that the proposal is in fact not only better for the "greater whole", but better also for the individual.