The proposition of a single unitary authority for the Far North raises an obvious question: would that be the regional council taking over the district council or vice versa?
From my own experience and observation in connection with a particular issue over a period of about nineyears, the statutory monitoring departments of both councils are equally negligent, and senior staff, including chief executive officers of both organisations, have so far done nothing to remedy this situation after receiving the evidence of it.
One CEO was clearly of the view that he had statutory powers to override an Act of Parliament, and on the same issue his successor has put in writing the proposition that his council cannot or should not perform this clear statutory duty solely because their doing so may be to some disadvantage to the individual committing the statutory offences. Sadly, I kid you not.
On a happier note, I was pleased to see that in their respective columns in The Age on May 10, Mayor Wayne Brown and NRC councillor Joe Carr are singing from the same songbook on the subject of strategic planning around the Ngawha geothermal power generating plant and development of local value-added processing industries.
That got me thinking of a jolly way to decide which council should become ascendant in the event of a local body amalgamation: whichever of those two elected officials (representing governance) can first manage to get their respective council's staff to actually perform their statutory duties in respect of the situation described above would demonstrate a basis on which to trust their future management of a larger single council/unitary authority.
Wayne and Joe - you have both been involved in the issue. Wayne is well ahead in points, despite stumbling over the Russell sewerage matter, but the finish line remains distant. If neither local body can get this sorted soon, larger governmental institutions will need to become involved.
Make your moves chaps. Game on? Or is it, as a Shakespeare character put it, "A pox on both your houses"?
