Election target to get Kaipara books sorted

Chairman of commissioners John Robertson

The commissioners in charge of Kaipara District Council are optimistic they can conclude court battles and get the books back in order in time for next year's local body election.

Taking charge in 2012, chairman of commissioners John Robertson had his work cut out for him, with the council heavily in debt.

"Everyone in Kaipara was upset or angry," he said.

"It was hard at the start, you really don't know what to expect. Every time you turn a page, you find something else that's not quite right."

In January, the council filed legal proceedings against former chief executive Jack McKerchar and the Auditor General over the controversial Mangawhai Community Wastewater Scheme, which cost ratepayers $30 million more than expected and saw a rates hikes of up to 30 per cent year on year.

Mr Robertson could not speculate on how much those cases could recoup but was hopeful they would be concluded by the election.

The council is also challenging defaulting ratepayers, who owe about $1 million in rates and penalties from 2012. Some are refusing to pay in protest at Parliament passing the Kaipara Validation Act, which validated irregularities in the setting and assessing of Kaipara rates between 2006-07 and 2011-12, in relation to the bungled wastewater scheme.

At the same time, Mangawhai Ratepayers and Residents Association is appealing a High Court decision that the rates rises were legal.

"While people aren't happy about what happened in the past, we have about 98 per cent paying rates as normal," Mr Robertson said.

"There is noise from an increasingly small group. There were 1000 withholding rates when appointed, now there are about 30. Most people are saying, 'let's look towards the future'."

Mr Robertson said the "hurt and anger" that was apparent in the past was dissipating and he was optimistic about the October 2016 election. "There's been a healing time but I sense the election will attract a good number of good candidates."

Associate Minister of Local Government Louise Upston visited Kaipara earlier this month, consulting community groups on how the commissioners were working.

Elections were originally set for October this year but Ms Upston stood by her April decision to reinstate the commissioners for a year longer, in preparation for a transition to "full democracy" in 2016.