Correspondent Jonathan Walters probed all aspects of how Christchurch is managed, and praised the Council’s practices and processes, as well as its culture of citizen involvement.

The front-page article in the magazine’s October issue referred to successes and efficiencies of Christchurch City, many of which are "not visible to the naked eye" such as "the highly evolved management and financial accounting systems and a remarkable ethos of civic involvement."

It goes on to say that in Christchurch all policies, projects and expenditures are expected to aim for the “triple-bottom-line” goal of economic development, social well-being and environmental sustainability.

Walters traces the city’s civic consciousness and innovations in finance and management back to the late 1980s, when Parliament directed local governments to consolidate, and to adopt a corporate-style management system.

David Close, a councillor from 1977 until retiring at the last election, recalls in the article that consolidation was not a popular concept with everyone. He says the initial plan for consolidation in Christchurch, put together by a commission of local officials, was essentially a blueprint for the status quo, perpetuating divisions and inequality.

“It would have left the old inner-city areas impoverished and the wealthy parts of the metropolitan area with a nice big tax base and nothing to spend money on.” An alternative plan, which eventually became law, was designed by Cr Close and a few allies to connect the whole Christchurch metropolitan area but still preserve local identities.

The article states that reforms set out in the State Sector Act (1988) and the Public Finance Act (1989), while failing to live up to their promise nationally, generated some real achievements at the grassroots level. Christchurch City Council embraced the new degree of flexibility in hiring and firing, purchasing and contracting, and the opportunity to redesign its systems. However, it rejected outright some of the business-based concepts that flowed down from Wellington.

“At one point, the market-infatuated national administration tried to mandate that local governments provide every service to citizens on a direct fee-for-service basis, whether it was a library book, a visit to an art gallery or a glass of tap water. Christchurch refused.

“The national reformers told localities to charge for water by imposing a meter fee on all residential use. Christchurch chose to stick with a flat fee that allows each home as much water as it wants...and the tap water that comes out of the pipes happens to be the cleanest in the world.”

Despite all its successes, Walters acknowledges that over the next few years Christchurch City Council faces some difficult issues “that will test not only its financial and management capacity but its now-entrenched ethic of citizen participation.”

These include air pollution, urban sprawl and economic development. But he sees Christchurch as having an advantage over many other local governments in confronting such challenges.

“Beyond the management and budgeting schemes, beyond the improvements in administration and personnel management, beyond the benefits of contracting out, Christchurch has developed a strength that the vast majority of governments all over the world still lack: leadership that understands how to read citizens’ wishes, and then accede to them or buck them, depending on the greater good. “It’s in handling that balancing act that Christchurch has time and again proved just how well-run a place it really is.”