Cut in Council a challenge for all

Christchurch faces an exciting challenge now that the numbers of councillors the city is allowed has been halved.

The Local Government Commission has recently ruled that in future Christchurch will have 12 city councillors, rather than 24 as in the past and, of course, a mayor.

While it was widely known that our numbers faced some reduction, the size of the cut has been a bombshell for many. The City Council’s proposal had been to reduce the number of city councillors from 24 to 16. Very few councillors had tried for an option as major as halving the numbers. In the end rather than liposuction, we got the political equivalent of a stomach stapling.

It will require some major changes from all of us — local body politicians, the public, and Council staff — to how we do business. While there are major challenges ahead I think they can also be viewed as generally good ones.

The slashing of councillor numbers is just part of the Local Government Commission decision. In total they decided that in future we would have two councillors and five community board members per ward in six wards around Christchurch.

Before the decision, we had a total of 61 elected local body representatives. This number was made up of 24 city councillors, 36 community board members and one mayor. In the new deal, we will have 12 councillors, 30 community board members, and one mayor. That adds up to a cut of about 30 per cent in elected member numbers.

It means we have to accept that we can no longer rely on quantity; the focus has to shift quality. Quality candidates, quality policy, quality decision-making, and the public voting with quality in mind.

This set of changes to local body politician numbers is part of a set of big changes that the Christchurch City Council has gone through in the recent past. It has been a time of reforms — about how we work and who runs things.

Last year we appointed a new, highlycompetent chief executive, Dr Lesley McTurk, who has already started to work on what we asked her to do, which was to take a fresh look at our structure.

Along with this internal change we are also adapting to the new Local Government Act, which has been enacted during this term of Council. This new set of legislation, although little noted by the media, has effectively re-written the way we do business. In my view it is a major shift of power back to local government since the abolition of Provincial Government in the 19th century.

When we add it all up, the decision has been management system to act on the demands brought about by the new, exciting package of legislation — the new Local Government Act.

It adds up to a need for all of us, the politicians, the public and Council staff to find new ways of working together. With just 12 councillors, the way things are done will have to change. It will mean that councillors will have to become more strategic and less inclined to tinker with Council staff management.

It will mean Council staff will have to ensure they bring quality research and detail to councillors for their deliberation and decision making.

Under the new Local Government Act, the onus is on local government to make sure that decision-making is as close to the public as possible. It means that community boards will have increased importance. Each community board will now be responsible for up to 55,000 people. It means that voters will have to choose very carefully who they put onto their boards.

It will also mean, quite rightly, that people considering standing for a community board or Council should be sure they are up to the new higher set of demands they will face.

One commentator has suggested that our new city structure will be something along the lines of a cabinet/backbench model. The councillors being the cabinet and the community boards the backbenchers.

It’s not a bad analogy in that it does at least acknowledge the dramatically changed dynamics in how we work.

My own preferred comparison is that of the new Council as the “city board of directors”.

This “board”, working along with the broader community, business, central government agencies and community groups will have to set up the vision for Christchurch.

We will need to be willing to publicly map out where we are going, how we want to get there, and how long we expect it to take. Ideally it would be great to end up with a team of “pragmatic idealists”.

That is people with a deep love of the Christchurch way of life, driven by a wish to improve and enhance that way of life, but also willing to deal with the changing sands of economic and social reality.

There has been a great deal of speculation in recent weeks about just what the impact of this latest set of changes to Council numbers will mean for local body politics. Many opinions have been floated and offered.

I think the real answer to this question is that it is too early to tell. I believe voters will insist, with just cause, that they are told exactly what those seeking their vote stand for and plan to do with their city. Beyond that, I think at this stage, it is just too soon to tell.

What we do all know is that we now face some exciting challenges as a city.