It is extremely unsettling for council staff who are concerned about their jobs while still being required to conduct the council business of providing affordable quality service delivery.
More than 39 major regional shared service and harmonised regulatory projects were initiated or completed by HB councils before the government-appointed commission advanced the "A Better Hawke's Bay" (ABHB) group's application for reorganisation.
The regional road network has been planned, prioritised and addressed by all councils since the start of the millennium .
In my Napier City Council role, I have chaired many tenders meetings where procurement contracts for energy, waste disposal and so on are accepted on the best terms regionally.
The NCC is about to formalise an arrangement to provide HR services to the Wairoa District Council. Only last week, I chaired hearings for plan change number 10. This harmonised every part of the Napier District Plan with every part of the Hastings District Plan where practical.
It defies belief that the amalgamation brigade claims (falsely) that we need to amalgamate to have the same rules and regulations.
The only local government leader in our region in support of the ABHB proposal is the Hastings mayor. He is the immediate successor of LGC chair Basil Morrison in the roles of president of Local Government NZ and chair of the Commonwealth Local Government Association.
The responsibility to represent the views of all the other councils in our region seems to have escaped our current president.
It is nonsensical to believe that the socio-economic issues of Wairoa or Central Hawke's Bay could be better addressed from Napier or possibly Hastings.
Community and economic development service delivery will always be better delivered from within a community.
It is equally foolish to believe the Winder Report's claims that making up to 150 very skilled council employees redundant across our region will save $10 million.
After the initial round of redundancies, the Auckland experience saw staff increase from 9300 pre-amalgamation to 11,134 last year, plus an army of consultants. This has been confirmed in writing by two Auckland councillors, including Mike Lee, the former Auckland Regional Council chairman.
Our regional economy has bounced back to 6.4 per cent annual growth on the back of horticulture and grazing and business; and HB is doing an excellent job addressing key economic development growth opportunities regionally.
The ABHB group ignores these facts and continues to blame the current council structure for the imaginary poor post-GEC economic performance.
The most important issue that remains is representation. The LGC's amended proposal has one less elected politician than present. However that doesn't count the Maori board or the regional planning committee.
Currently, the 57 members in our region have one vote each at the first tier of governance.
Under the LGC proposal, only 19 members will represent our region at this level with the rest relegated to the ineffective second tier.
Napier refreshed its council last election with 50 per cent new membership. It is a certainty that, on a super council, most of these new people with fresh ideas and vision would be relegated to local boards while those with profile and name recognition would occupy the first tier. This is not the future I wish for our fantastic region.
I am confident that its citizens have enough facts to make the best decision at the inevitable referendum.
* Tony Jeffery is chairman of the Napier City Council planning committee.
* Business and civic leaders, organisers, experts in their field and interest groups can contribute opinions. The views expressed here are the writer's opinion and not the newspaper's. Email: editor@hbtoday.co.nz
