Report deceptive: Chief executive

Wayne Jack, chief executive, Napier City Council, at a press conference to discuss a recent report by the Local Government Commission. Photo / Duncan Brown

Information in an official amalgamation pamphlet dropped in Hawke's Bay letterboxes, is based on 'deceptive' financial figures that are almost $1 billion off the mark, Napier City Council says.

The council's attack on the Local Government Commission-issued pamphlet is the latest blow in an increasingly aggressive campaign against the commission by the region's three anti-amalgamation councils.

Napier City Council yesterday called on the commission to cancel the pamphlet drop because the brochure includes a summary of a report on the state of the region's local authority infrastructure and debt position which the council says is "riddled with inaccurate information" to the tune of almost $1 billion.

Senior council managers say their analysis of the report has highlighted a $951 million discrepancy in figures used by the commission to claim that the Hastings and Central Hawke's Bay district councils' roading and water infrastructure is in a "relatively better condition" than that of Napier City and the Wairoa District.

Napier City Council chief executive Wayne Jack yesterday phoned commission chief executive Sandra Preston to request the pamphlet and the report it is based on be withdrawn, and that a phone survey the commission is undertaking to gauge the level of public support for amalgamation in the region be halted.

The commission was yesterday standing by its report and brochure, but said it had asked the council to forward its specific concerns, which it would consider.

Mr Jack said he would write to the commission today detailing the concerns.

He had also raised the council's concerns with the Office of the Auditor-General and asked it to review the commission's report, a request that the OAG was "taking seriously," he said.

"The data they [the commission] have used in the report is old. It's strange they haven't chosen to use more recent information, which is available. At best, it's deceptive," he said.

"As a result, the rest of the region's road assets look better than Napier's despite the fact that anyone who uses the roads would know the roads across the region are generally well maintained."

The commission's report concluded Napier ratepayers would need to spend all the council's $78 million of financial assets, plus a further $45 million to bring the city's infrastructure up to the region-wide standard.

But the council's works asset development manager, Johan Ehlers, said yesterday his calculations put the city $71 million in credit - rather than $45 million behind - using the commission's formula.

"In all my years of public service I'm never seen anything handled so appallingly," Mr Jack said.

Wairoa Mayor Craig Little called the commission's report misleading and said its process had been "deeply flawed".

Wairoa District Council chief executive Fergus Power disputed the report's conclusion that Wairoa was $18 million behind the regional average for infrastructure spend.

Central Hawke's Bay Mayor Peter Butler said the commission's pamphlet was ambiguous because it contained unclear information about the possible repayment of council debt.

"So I rang them up down there and they told me I'm just talking through a hole in my head," he said.

Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule, who is also president of council advocacy organisation Local Government New Zealand, is due in Wairoa today as part of a LGNZ "reputation workshop".

Mr Little said he would take the opportunity to tell Mr Yule that, in his view, the biggest challenge to LGNZ's reputation was Mr Yule's ongoing support for amalgamation in Hawke's Bay.

Mr Yule said he was well aware of Mr Little's views but his comment was "interesting" given there was no connection between LGNZ and the commission's amalgamation proposal. Napier Labour MP Stuart Nash, who has campaigned strongly against amalgamation, said yesterday he would be taking the councils' concerns about the Local Government Commission's to Local Government Minister Paula Bennett.