Hawke’s Bay Regional Council is in crisis, and the buck must stop with councillors - Anna Lorck

Anna Lorck says what ratepayers wanted from regional council was a plan that made sure flood protection was the priority. Photo / Paul Taylor

Anna Lorck is a former Member of Parliament for Tukituki and a regional council ratepayer.

OPINION: The Hawke’s Bay Regional Council is in crisis. Public confidence has eroded as it turns ratepayer after ratepayer against it.

Management is under attack - but the buck must stop with the elected councillors who are there to serve the ratepayers and make the decisions.

Leadership is absent.

All ratepayers wanted was a plan that made sure flood protection was the priority.

This should not have been a difficult task, given the Government had already given the regional council over $200 million towards this work.

Together with council’s $500m war chest, there is the money to help pay for the capital infrastructure and to protect future generations.

There is no need to make ratepayers pay even more - let alone borrow and bring in more debt to do so.

The regional councillors could have made the call to put every other project on hold. Gone right back to basics and maintenance, and in doing so made sure its operational structure was fit for that purpose, reducing overheads and costs considerably.

I doubt many ratepayers would have disagreed with this cut-and-dry approach - as long as there was a plan and tracking of progress.

But instead the regional council still hasn’t got a plan of how or whether to build up or out. No report that the public can see on the work ahead.

Worse than this, none of the rate increases this year are actually going towards flood protection.

So what on earth has the council been doing?

Instead its first priority, that it dropped on us over Christmas, was to switch to capital rating and force a greater rating burden on homeowners, growers and businesses.

It was the first real sign of what is now proving correct - that council has completely lost its way.

Despite overwhelming public opposition, the majority of councillors refused to listen, told us they knew better and voted to go switch its rating formula anyway.

Now as the regional council faces an independent review into the Wairoa flood management response, and a brewing fight with growers over using incomplete data for water allocation that could severely damage our regional economy, it’s getting ready to send out rates bills that will see thousands of homeowners effectively facing 50 per cent to 500 per cent of compounding rates rises.

The damage these unaffordable costs will inflict on ratepayers has no end in sight.

On top of this the council has also agreed to hike rates at an even higher average rate of 18% next year.

At the same time, it’s going to take 12 long months to look at its own internal costs and come back with some suggestions for improvement.

Divisions are now cementing around the council table, and we have councillors apologising and then being called out on social media while others stay silent.

And that’s only what the public is seeing - one can only imagine the conversations being held behind the scenes.

What happens now, will be up to the elected councillors themselves and whether they are willing to listen to the region, admit they have made some very wrong choices and take action to change - or will they simply continue down the same trajectory with their ears blocked?

In the meantime, every day the council delays any real progress, the costs go up and so does the risk to our region’s economy and future.