Local Board Survey: Devonport-Takapuna

Photo / Chris Skelton

The New Zealand Herald has surveyed the 21 local boards to see how they are getting on after six months of the Super City.

The Herald asked the chairs of the local boards six questions and to score the first four questions out of 10. Not all boards gave a score.

Here are the responses from Chris Darby, chairman of the Devonport - Takapuna board.

1. After six months, how well is the local board model working for your community?

Score: 6/10

Cobbling together budgets and information has been a difficult task in the first six months. My local board support team was operating with a 30% staff vacancy rate until just one month ago. It is only now that we have a full complement. Bedding the new structure down was always going to take time. Elected members pass the ballot box test in mid-October and have high expectations of finding an organisation that is ready for them. Come February many staff were still yet to find their eventual desks and switch their computers on. They found new managers and management cultures to operate in and tin most cases totally new people to work alongside.

For some elected members it was a forced divorce with no clear settlement agreement followed by an arranged marriage of eight entities into one. It's like the coming together of a Fonterra, Telecom and a chain of Glassons stores. No-one seemed to quite know who had the dowry and the kids were hived off to the CCOs. Such an enormous change will take time to settle and I do not anticipate full bedding in until the second term. For some in our community they hark back to what was with two hands firmly gripped to the rear view mirror. As boards we need to acknowledge the upset, grab the opportunity presented and start to make it work for our communities to its fullest potential.

2. How are things going between your local board and the Auckland Council?

Score: 7/10

This question demonstrates a lack of understanding in the new non-hierarchical co-governance model. Your question asks how things are going between the boards and the council which they are part of. Auckland Council is made up of the local boards and the governing body. Legislation clearly identifies this and it goes on to identify the elected members as either local board members or governing body members. For some unknown reason the governing body members have adopted the title of 'councillor'. While 'councillor' suits the old model of governance it does not suit the current. If the new council is truly non-hierarchical it's important to embed a new culture at the outset. When the governing body demonstrates an addiction to old language to describe itself the governance model becomes undermined at the outset. I'm not suggesting board members are called councillors but that we are all 'members' of the Auckland Council - governing body and local boards.

3. How are things going between your local board and the CCOs?

Score: 4/10

a) Auckland Transport are yet to bring a project monitoring report to the Devonport-Takapuna local board. AT argues lack of capacity to undertake this work before June/July. The outcome is a lack of local community knowledge of what's being delivered and planned for delivery. There does not appear to be adequate capacity built into the AT model to allow it to inform, respond and engage with boards.

b) At a recent Local Board chairs meeting, followed immediately by a meeting of chairs and the CE and mayor, I highlighted the complete lack of LB input into the Major Events Strategy. This is an ATEED led strategy that requires LB input as the statue provides for. The AC cover report identified 'consultation' had occurred with local boards when it had not appeared before a single local board. Following my email enquiry seeking how ATEED sought input from boards, I was told it occurred at a cluster meeting on 14 March. The cluster meeting involved an informal gathering of northern board members who were shown about four slides on events generally. The 50 page draft Events Strategy was not table and as I have since found out was still confidential to the ATEED board on 28 March. To the CE's absolute credit he has immediately moved to change the reporting template to show 'Local Board Input' and is instructing senior managers to put in place a change in culture to deliver inclusive co-governance.

c) Regarding other CCOs the relationship is arm's length in these early days.

4. Do you think local boards are living up to the promise of empowering communities?

Score: 4/10

a) At this stage of proceedings the answer is no, not as intended by either the Royal Commission or statute. The RC identified two systemic problems - poor public engagement and lack of regional integration. The latter is addressed through the governing body's requirement to stay focussed on the big picture regional matters (with input from boards) and delivery through CCOs at arm's length from political interference. Community engagement is the charge of the boards. The legislation which sets the new governance structure up has determined that a higher level conversation with communities is required. This is not more layers of the same deadening and disenfranchising 'consultation' as formerly laid out. Local boards are expected to reach out to neighbourhoods and cul-de-sacs to inform their own decision-making but also to give the governing body confidence that the inputs provided to regional plans, policies and strategies reflect through deep community engagement.

b) The ATA (the government's agency) has failed to deliver any semblance of structure to allow local boards to undertake their most important role. Human resource and clear budgets are entirely lacking to address what is one of two key issues identified by the Royal Commission. So government's delivery agency failed to deliver. At a recent chairs meeting the CE spoke candidly about his focus in the first six months being on ensuring the governing body, panels and forums getting up and running. He acknowledges the need to refocus on empowering the boards once the Annual Plan is out of the way. If the ATA did their job at the outset, the CE and Local Boards would not find themselves on the back foot as we do now.

5.What improvements would you like to see made to the local board model? (No score required)

Until the local board model as inherited through legislation is properly resourced and provided adequate budgets it is premature to propose improvements to the model. If the CE draws focus onto the local boards beginning of July as intended and we begin to see transformation come out of that then I'll be more confident with the model we have.

6. Please feel free to comment on any other issues about the local board model.

The local board model has huge potential if it can be delivered on. It will require a change in culture for many returning elected members. It demands we all understand the role of governance and empower a new found efficacy in management to ensure timely delivery of programmes and projects.