The Policy Observatory of Auckland University of Technology has just released a report on the state of Auckland Council, five years on from its creation. This group, headed by Professor of Public Policy at AUT, Professor Ian Shirley, and including a group of eminent academics with international experience, produced their report for The Committee for Auckland.
In its foreword, Professor Shirley’s committee admitted that getting structures and decision-making rules right made good outcomes likely, but not certain.
The report did not cover the quality of decision-making or the implementation of decisions and processes. This means that concerns about spending and the management of the unitary plan process were not addressed.
The report concluded that while the governance system could be improved, regional governance, which was weak under the previous regimes, was stronger and better served greater Auckland. They saw no reason to relitigate boundaries. However, there was criticism of the strength of local engagement and participation. In fact they said, “community engagement is poor.”
Another area of concern was the possibility of further political tickets putting up candidates in local body elections. The committee believed that “local electors would not support any further concentration of local body politics beyond the already evident tickets on offer at the election. A governing faction facing off an opposition faction would not lead to better decision-making or outcomes for Aucklanders.”
In simple words - keep party politics out of local body governance. The committee was more sympathetic to CCOs than this writer, but did say that the creation of CCOs had removed ‘geographical silos’ and created instead ‘functional silos’, where assets and services operate independently from the rest of council.
They pointed out that transport is a core function of council, and yet Auckland Transport operates largely outside council control. Transport does not operate in isolation but impacts on the way communities are developed, grow and function, the committee asserts.
Ponsonby News has seen examples where Auckland Transport produces policies in isolation, sometimes secretly, and has not taken into account amenity values which residents may lose if AT policy is implemented. They have also been prone to top-down imposition of decisions, neglecting adequate community consultation. This feeling among residents, of ignore, seems to back up the report’s conclusion that “transport needs to be a part of a systematic approach to managing Auckland’s growth”.
If AT and other CCOs can keep improving their community consultation processes and wherever possible engage in ‘bottom up’ consultation, CCOs may not get such a bad wrap going forward. The report is critical of the local board model. They say it is yet to achieve its potential. Local boards do not have their own legal status: they are unincorporated elements within the council.
Ponsonby News would suggest that our own Waitemata Local Board, under the excellent chairmanship of Shale Chambers, has performed well, but only as far as it can, answerable as it is to the council chief executive. It needs more power, more money and greater autonomy. Professor Ian Shirley’s report suggests that “the sheer size of the council may undermine the public’s sense that they can get involved with or influence decision-making”.
That, too, gels with the Ponsonby News perception: ‘What can little old me do in the face of this monstrous bureaucracy?” Overall, the report gives a pass mark to Auckland Council, five years down the track, but admits much is yet to be done before Auckland can realistically be called “the world’s most liveable city”.
They finish their report on a sober note: “There is a danger in our view that the vision of the world’s most liveable city might be limited to a brand, or a platitude, rather than a statement of substance. For some residents the vision is a reality, but for others, as highlighted in this report, Auckland is far from being the world’s most liveable city.”
We, as citizens of Auckland, must keep positive and optimistic, and do all we can in our personal and professional lives to make the vision a reality for all.
(JOHN ELLIOTT)