Doug Leeder chaired the Bay of Plenty Regional Council for 12 years. Photo / Merle Cave
Regional council functions need to continue despite MP “pontifications” that the councils will “pass their use-by date”, the outgoing Bay of Plenty Regional Council chairman says.
Doug Leeder said he was not too worried about what form the councils take in future, but their functions need to be delivered.
“Those land, water and air attributes that we’re [regional council] supposed to monitor, someone needs to do it.”
One option was unitary councils, which cover both regional and city or district council functions, he said.
Changes to councils were inevitable, Leeder told Local Democracy Reporting.
“It doesn’t matter which government’s in power, because I’m firmly of the view that local government across the whole local government sector does need revisiting in the interests of effectiveness and efficiency on behalf of ratepayers.”
The inevitable change was one of the reasons Leeder decided to stand down, after serving as chairman since he was first elected to the council 12 years ago.
“It’s probably time to pass the baton to someone else who can chart them through the reorganisation that is going to occur.”
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and MP Shane Jones have questioned the role of regional councils in future amid Resource Management Act reforms.
Leeder joined the council in 2013 after 12 years as a councillor on the Ōpōtiki District Council and 20 years in corporate governance in the dairy industry.
Starting his career in the police force, Leeder has held governance roles across many sectors. He is a director of the Port of Tauranga and a Māori Land Court independent committee chairman.
He also runs a dairy farm in Waiotahe.
Leeder said the next chairperson did not need to have been a regional councillor in the past, but it should go to the best person for the job.
He would not be drawn on who out of the 47 candidates running for regional council seats would make a good chairperson. This was for those elected to the council to decide, he said.
Unlike in city or district council elections, where the voters choose the mayor, each new cohort of regional councillors elects their chair.
Reflecting on his time as chairman, Leeder said the councillors and staff were great to work with, collegial and professional.
A project he was proud of was the $15 million the council put toward the University of Waikato Tauranga campus.
“That’s bearing fruit now in terms of fulltime student equivalents that they have there.”
Another is the $5m the regional council put towards developing the Tauranga Marine Precinct, which was managed by Tauranga City Council until the facility’s controversial sale to a private developer in April.
It was an asset Tauranga would continue to benefit from through economic activity, he said.
The Kaituna River rediversion and Maketū Estuary enhancement project was a “great success” and the right thing to do, Leeder said.
When first elected the council set a strategy that its investment arm Quayside Holdings would be an “intergenerational endowment fund” for the Bay of Plenty ratepayers, he said.
The growth of that fund was notable, and the council need to work hard to keep it an intergenerational fund, he said.
Quayside Holdings had a 54% shareholding in the Port of Tauranga but last year the council agreed to a managed sell-down to a minimum of 28%.
This was to diversify the fund and reduce the risk of the investment portfolio.
The council used dividends from Quayside to subsidise rates.
Leeder said those dividends could be used for whatever the council wanted, but the proceeds should be used for the best interests of ratepayers.
Leeder had mixed emotions about finishing because he had an “intimate knowledge” of the council, its objectives and how to serve the public, which was the enjoyable part of the job, he said.
“I’ve been in governance for a long time, and it’s been really rewarding. I hope I’ve added value, both in the commercial field, which I came from and in local government.”
He did not have plans for his time in retirement other than waking up each morning and deciding what to do for the day.
- LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.