The City Vision submission to the Royal Commission on Auckland Governance can be found as a pdf document here and is pasted below for your convenience.

Context

Royal Commission on Auckland Governance (extract from Recitals)
“To face these challenges Auckland requires local and regional governance equal to the best in the world and capable of working effectively with central government to ensure Auckland is a successful, sustainable city in the Asia Pacific region and is recognised as such.”

The Local Government Act 2002 states the purpose of local government as:

• To enable democratic local decision-making and action by, and on behalf of, communities; and
• To promote the social, economic, environmental and cultural well-being of communities in the present and for the future.”

The New Zealand Sustainable Development Programme of Action defines sustainable development as:

“Development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

“Achieving sustainable development involves a different way of thinking and working. It requires:

• looking after people
• taking the long-term view
• taking account of the social, economic, environmental and cultural effects of our decisions
• encouraging participation and partnerships.”

Introduction

City Vision is a political grouping from Labour, the Greens, the Alliance and community independents. It was established in 1997 and has stood candidates in Auckland City for council, community boards, the Auckland Regional Council, Auckland District Health Board and the Portage Licensing Trust. City Vision candidates have chaired the Auckland Regional Council and been the Deputy Mayor of Auckland City Council.

In 2004 to 2007 term we worked with Labour and Action Hobson to form a majority on the Auckland City Council. The Eden/Albert and Western Bays community boards were all City Vision candidates. Three of out five members of the Avondale community board were City Vision. The Roskill community board had one City Vision member. The Auckland District Health Board had three City Vision members.

In the 2007 to 2010 term we have three councillors on the Auckland City Council, and eight community board members on three community boards. The Auckland District Health Board has three City Vision members.

We believe that local government’s role is to be the voice of the whole community and an agent of place. It must contribute to the development and sharing of its community’s vision, building community cohesiveness as well as making and shaping the place. In making cost effective decisions about allocating resources to do this, local government must consider community well-being over time as well as how the achievement of local, regional and national community objectives are to be integrated.

We believe Auckland governance arrangements can be enhanced to ensure local government can deliver on its purpose and meet the imperatives of sustainable development for the region and its local communities.

Governance and representation arrangements should enable decisions to be made in the place which is closest to their effects while ensuring integrated resource management. Governance should encourage active choices to participate in decision-making.

In choosing democracy, societies do not choose the most streamlined method of making decisions. In fact, it can be rather messy and usually takes more time than in a hierarchical system. City Vision firmly supports local democracy because it has a great potential to deliver resilient solutions which have had the benefit of the contest of ideas that comes from debate and argument and discussion in homes, workplaces, boardrooms, schools, cafes and shops.

The direct effects of many local government decisions will be experienced for generations, even centuries. Indeed well built roads can last for millennia as residents of and visitors to places once governed by the Roman empire can attest. A democratic society strives for decisions which have the robustness provided by understanding, participation and support from its citizens.

Key drivers

The current debate, which has led to the formation of the Royal Commission of Inquiry, has a number of drivers.

They include, Auckland’s citizens looking for better solutions for managing growth and funding infrastructural renewal. And also central government’s desire for local government to work together more effectively to achieve:

• economic transformation
• a better life for families, young and old
• the promotion of a New Zealand and local identity.

Local government arrangements are both structural and relational. A decade ago, the State Services Commissioner warned in his Annual Report (1998) against trying to solve too many problems with the single solution of re-structuring.

“As a rule, policy problems require policy solutions; delivery problems require delivery solutions; performance problems may require individual solutions. …International research highlights the risks that occur when we attempt to apply structural solutions to policy problems.”

When deciding if and how local governance arrangements need to change, we must identify which driver is being addressed and take care to ensure that solutions mesh together into an effective system without too many unforeseen, undesirable consequences.

International and historical experience

In other times and places, communities have faced similar challenges, threats and opportunities to those facing Auckland communities in 2008.

For example, the history of the Greater London Council and Authority has some significant similarities with Auckland. An antagonistic central government disbanded the Greater London Council in 1986. By 2000, it was clear to London’s citizens and a different central government that better coordination was required and the Greater London Authority was created. In New Zealand in 1992, an antagonistic central government removed the broader regional governance functions of the Auckland Regional Council. By 2007, it had become clear that broad regional governance and coordination is critical to manage some of the challenges of change in the region.

Another example is the partnership model developed by Vancouver to plan for growth over the last 30 years. 2.2 million people live in 21 municipalities within the wider Vancouver region. They have developed and are implementing their Greater Vancouver Livable Region Strategic Plan. The plan is compelling not prescriptive and the cities adopt the Regional Context Statements, outlining how they will implement the regional directions. The goals of the plan are to:

• build a compact region
• build complete communities
• increase transportation choice
• protect the green Zone.

Assertions have been made that Auckland is ‘over governed’, that Auckland has significantly more elected representatives than other comparable communities. Recent international research does not bear these assertions out, in fact factual comparisons indicate that Auckland ‘over governance’ is an urban myth.

Data in this table are from a recent presentation to the Institute of Public Policy at AUT University. Chris Game from the Institute Of Local Government Studies, University of Birmingham, England gave international comparisons of the average population per local authority. Only one tier, the most local with decision making powers, was counted. This means that New Zealand community boards are not included in the figures as using international comparisons they do not have effective decision-making authority.

Similarities of aspirations however, should not blind us to the significant differences in the history, culture, funding arrangements and responsibilities of local government in London, Vancouver or Auckland. Simply mapping English, French or Canadian experiences onto a New Zealand geography and history will not be as successful as developing our own solutions together taking into account others’ successes and understanding where, why and how they succeeded.

One international experience we should strive to avoid is election becoming a test of celebrity rather than ability to lead and facilitate community vision. Another is the concentration of power into the hands of an oligarchy. During the 20th century, many European citizens experienced the effects of the fatal attraction of a charismatic man promising to make the trains run on time. It is not an experience we should risk emulating.

City Vision believes that the leadership of regional, local and community councils and boards should be decided by the members of those councils and boards. This arrangement ensures that the leader has the confidence of the majority of the team and can engage with other bodies with the real authority which comes from having negotiated support. The current system in local authorities of electing a mayor at large has led on a number of occasions to instability within councils and an inability for the putative leader to speak with the authority given to leader by the weight of numbers. This electoral system has a long track record in New Zealand – we elect our Prime Minister this way.

Auckland’s success

Auckland has been very successful in its governance of most of its responsibilities. It is voted consistently among the world's most liveable cities. Auckland clearly fulfils its reputation given that over a third of the country's population has chosen to live here. It has met the challenges of the past 150 years and every day more people come here to live. There are many examples of local government working in partnership with other public and private sector organisations to achieve significant benefits for the citizens of the region. For example

• The Regional Parks Service
• Waitakere Wellbeing process
• Libraries for the Greater Auckland Region, (Lgar)
• Integrated Catchment Management System
• Watercare Services Ltd.
• the local, regional and centrally funded roading network
• Auckland Regional Graffiti Steering Group
• Auckland Museums’ Electoral College
• Strengthening Families initiative
• Safe Waitakere and Safer Auckland
• The Auckland Sustainability Framework and the One Plan

Sometimes the community of interest is regional – e.g. Libraries for the Greater Auckland Region, sometimes it is the local and central government agencies within a city – e.g. the Waitakere Wellbeing process. These success stories contain a mixture of structural, collaborative and relationship solutions but they all have a single common factor. They are all successes of local committees of people who care about the results and are empowered to make real decisions.

It is a truism that best indicator of future success is past success. In considering how to improve our current system, we believe the Commission should investigate carefully what works in Auckland – this particular place and people – and build on those models of success.

Relevant matters

Boundaries and collaborative arrangements

Boundaries should reflect geographical communities of interest and support effective local decision making and action. The size of a local authority should depend on the particular decisions and service delivery for which the authority is responsible.

Effective collaboration with other local and central government agencies to provide excellent services to Auckland’s citizens should be a measure of the effectiveness of the organisation.

Our preference is for residents to each receive a single territorial / regional authority combined rates bill. The rate payments would be gathered together but set separately, with the bill showing the various components coming from the districts/cities and the region.

We recommend that the boundaries of the community boards, the territorial authorities and the regional authority correspond to strong communities of interest and remain relatively stable. However, within these, ward boundaries should be updated regularly to ensure that Councillors represent relatively equal populations. This would mean that ward boundaries would not always correspond with the boundaries of community boards below them, who would then have a link with the two or three Councillors representing significant parts of their community board. This potentially strengthens local democracy in territorial authorities.

Effective relationships and collaboration between central and local government

There is a long history of central government and Auckland local government working collaboratively on common issues. A recent example is significant co-operation on roading and transport.

In general, structural change is not an effective method of improving relationships. Effective collaborative relationships start with understanding and acknowledgement of the various goals, drivers, resources and challenges of the parties and a culture of seeking resilient solutions.

The city/region of Auckland is a complex and sophisticated set of place-based inter related systems. Central government is structured around function not place. Central government representatives sometimes appear to see local government as an imperfect reflection of itself, rather than a different system responding to different expectations, needs and legislative requirements. Central government would strengthen its relationship with Auckland’s local government by engaging genuinely on the basis of respect and understanding of the differing roles.

Local government should support its relationship with central government by developing regional and local policy statements stating direction and purpose that will support efficient and effective engagement and decision-making. The One Plan exercise is a current example. This approach in turn requires central government to recognise the value to Auckland of central government agencies making long term planning and infrastructure funding commitments. Central government could further strengthen this process by ensuring its regional policy-making is aligned with the regional policy process.

Collaboration between central and local government to develop and build community cohesiveness could be improved. The partnership model pioneered in Waitakere City, the Waitakere Way has huge potential for other parts of Auckland.

The Local Partnership and Governance Research Group received Foundation for Research in Science and Technology funding in 2002 to analyse the Waitakere Way of joining up community agencies with local and central government. The report of this research – Key Learnings and Ways Forward: the Potential of Partnership includes a chapter entitled “Governance reforms and decentralisation – seeking a better framework for wellbeing coordination and partnerships”. We commend this document to the Commission as a useful example of what we do well when we care about the results and are empowered to make real decisions.

Local government methods should facilitate compatibility with other national and local systems.

Ownership, governance institutions and funding responsibilities for public infrastructure, services and facilities

Decisions about public goods and services must be made be the public (or their representatives) not by private interests.

Regional governance should be strengthened to provide regional leadership. We support the chair of the entity responsible for region-wide decisions being the person that speaks for Auckland on regional issues. Community boards should be strengthened to build, maintain and support their communities.

Auckland is predicted to grow rapidly in the next two decades. This carries a high risk of social alienation for many of its residents. For this reason, as we plan for growth we must also facilitate the building and strengthening of our communities. Connected communities engage more actively in democratic processes.

Long term planning for changing land uses and growing communities must be done robustly. Quick and dirty is not appropriate for decisions whose effects could last for generations, whether those decisions relate to development and sharing of the community’s vision, building community cohesiveness or making and shaping the place.

For planning to deliver sustainable solutions, it must consider how the proposed solutions will affect the region’s people and the various communities of interest, geographical, cultural or economic which exist. Planning must should be done in layers - from high level general principles, values and outcomes and deepen through more detail and specificity.

Planning and implementation for the changing needs of growing communities should be holistic not fractured by functional or professional boundaries.

Governance that includes districts/cities and the region ensures both diversity of opinion and contestability of decision-making. Such robust debate is essential when developing plans that will have an impact on the region for decades into the future. New institutions must not reduce the opportunity for debate and the benefits that contestability of ideas and diversity of opinion brings.

Boundaries of authority must be purposeful. It is impossible to write rules that anticipate every possibility, so a culture is required which expects ambiguity to be explored and managed with the goal of getting the best result for the community.

Minimum powers of the cities, districts and community councils/boards should be defined in legislation.

The region

• Should own, rate for and undertake planning functions for regional infrastructure for example, regional roading network regional water supply, regional wastewater management, waste management, broadband, regional parks, regional public transport, ports
• Should be responsible for the collaborative development of quadruple bottom line policy statements on, for example, growth, transport, regional settlement strategy
• Should own and rate for regional facilities for example, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, regional-class stadia and sports facilities (e.g. Eden Park), The Zoo, Auckland Museum
• Should own and rate for regional services – which could include public transport, rubbish, tourism development, economic development
• Should set the high level land use policy, to which cities are required to 'give effect' in their own district (and sub-district) plans
• Should set rules for land use planning so that the territorial authority-developed district plans are consistent and easy for people to understand and use
• Should provide monitoring of regional air and water quality.

Cities and districts

• Should be responsible for city-wide functions and services including building community, regional sub-centre planning and development (e.g. Auckland CBD, Henderson, Albany, Kumeu), developing and sharing of the community’s vision and building community cohesiveness
• The size of these councils should be appropriate for their decision-making and service delivery role. For example, if the current number of city and district councils were retained, each would probably be smaller in size than at present, both political and staffing, as a result of transfer of functions to community board and regional bodies
• Should lead community development planning for their area e.g. homeless action plan.

Community boards

• Should be strengthened to realise their potential of being genuinely representative of local areas and their communities. This grassroots democracy is at the centre of participatory democracy yet in Auckland, as in much of New Zealand, residents are largely unempowered to participate
• Must be accessible to citizens they represent locally
• Must be able to represent effectively their citizens in wider forums such as city/district or regional planning
• Must have real authority, accountability, responsibility and resources for building local communities, managing local facilities and services, decision making about local parks and community centres, input into local roading issues etc
• Should be the first point of contact for many people in grassroots community involvement
• Must have dedicated local staffing and resources and be able to provide a real contestability of ideas and possibilities for solutions
• Should implement regional policy for the locality
• Could include affiliation with a city/district or situated within a city/district but with specific resourcing.

Governance and representation arrangements to support diversity and facilitate leadership

For there to be a significant improvement in the local decision making local government must support real local participation in real local decisions – not simply electing a representative once every three years. City Vision is committed to local democracy and does not support giving this up as being too hard a job. Describing a failure of visionary governance as citizen apathy is dishonest and lazy.

Governance arrangements should facilitate meaningful relationships with and access to elected representatives by people that live in the Auckland region.

Arrangements should allow low cost election campaigns in order to reduce financial barriers to being a representative of the community. This is essential if ‘local democracy’ includes a commitment to having the diversity of Auckland’s residents represented in the governance and decision-making arrangements of the region.

The process must support diversity and contestability of ideas to provide checks and balances. It must enable holistic and sustainable solutions that are formulated from an intent to promote the social, cultural, environmental and economic wellbeing of residents.

Regional governance should be structured in a manner that ensures that regional planning and policy statements are developed both from the bottom up and the top down.

The principle of subsidiarity applies: regional decisions should be taken and communicated at a regional level, but local decisions should be taken locally. This is the essence of local government.

Transition processes

If the Commissioners recommend significant changes to local government institutions, great care should be taken to ensure to minimise adverse effects on the smooth running of local authorities and the regional council. The current labour market has meant that all local authorities have found recruiting and retaining skilled workers and managers to be a significant challenge.

A University of Auckland report by Boxall and Rasmussen on labour turnover in New Zealand noted that while in low wage sectors it may be cost effective to have labour turnover at around 15%, in organisations which have high service quality and innovation objectives and which seek to improve group based problem solving and organisational learning over time, turnover levels greater than 5% per annum are likely to be negative. Staff turnover in many Auckland local government organisations is currently above 15% per annum. This is likely to be problematic as everyone wants council workers to improve problem solving and organisational learning over time.

There is strong international evidence that most workers consider job security very important in a job. ‘Good job security’ has similar levels of importance to ‘pays well’, ‘develop your skills and abilities’ and ‘freedom to do job’. Boxall and Rasmussen’s study confirms this in New Zealand and they note, “It is probably fair to say that workers embrace job related change which encourages their personal development but which doesn’t threaten their other interests.”

Uncertainty about the future prospects of their organisations will affect councils’ abilities to provide prospective and existing employees with confidence that they are stable and offer job security. Central government recognised this risk during the 1989 reorganisation of local government by engaging with the local government unions about managing change and enacting the Local Authorities Employment Protection Act (1989), which provided some protections for workers through the transition process. We believe that it will be essential for a similar process of engagement between central and local government and the unions representing local government workers during any future transition.

Bibliography

Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (2003). Sustainable Development for New Zealand: Programme of Action Wellington: DPMC

Craig, D. and Courtney, C. (2004) Key Learnings and Ways Forward: the Potential of Partnership. Auckland, Local Partnerships and Governance Research Group (www.lpg.org.nz)

Game, C.(2008) A UK Perspective on Metropolitan Government, Auckland: AUT University Institute of Public Policy (www.ipp.org.nz/lgpastseminars.htm)

Boxall, P. and Rasmussen, E. (2001) Labour Turnover in New Zealand: preliminary report on a national survey, Auckland, University of Auckland

Lowe, G.S. (2001) High Quality Work Environments as the Key to Attracting, Retaining and Developing Top Talent Keynote Address to Recruiting in the Public Sector conference, Ottawa

Department of Internal Affairs, (2006) Putting Pen to Paper – Creating Partnership Agreements That Work, Wellington, Department of Internal Affairs