Mayors and nightmares
Tauranga calling in a commissioner to replace its dysfunctional council is just the latest example of local government sinking in a swamp of division. Is it a model that is no longer fit for purpose? Georgia Forrester reports.
It’s been a turbulent few days in local government politics. As Tauranga Mayor Tenby Powell threw in the towel, he publicly called for a commissioner to replace the dysfunctional council he says is filled with ‘‘petty politicians’’.
Powell tendered his resignation on Friday after an emotionally charged council meeting. Meanwhile in Invercargill, a review of the city council says mayor Sir Tim Shadbolt is struggling to fulfil significant aspects of his job and, as a result, there is a leadership void.
But dysfunction and division within local government isn’t anything new. In fact, it seems to have been rife for years. Here’s a look at some of the debacles that have confronted local government and made headlines over the years:
Tauranga
Last week, Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta confirmed she is taking advice on what level of Crown intervention, if any, is required in Tauranga.
Mahuta said Tauranga City Council had suffered significant conflict among elected representatives.
Emails and texts provided after an Official Information Act request by Stuff revealed an increasingly toxic stoush between Powell and councillors. The mayor was called ‘‘arrogant’’ and a ‘‘narcissist’’ by councillors, while others said they were sick of the ‘‘plotting and scheming’’ going on behind closed doors.
The messages also showed Powell was concerned about threats to his family in what he called an effort to ‘‘run him out of town’’.
The level of dysfunction was laid bare in the independent report, which was commissioned after a spate of namecalling, point-scoring and a raft of code of conduct complaints plagued councillors.
‘‘An independent report, commissioned by the council, has found numerous governance issues,’’ Mahuta said. ‘‘These issues include councillors having a limited understanding of their governance role, and a failure of its elected representatives to recognise that there are problems.’’
Invercargill
Invercargill Mayor Sir Tim Shadbolt has rubbished an independent review of the city council in which there was a clear consensus that he is struggling in the role.
Shadbolt said the report was flawed and that he had been singled out as a scapegoat for the council’s performance.
In August the Department of Internal Affairs sent a letter to the Invercargill City Council, raising concerns about ‘‘significant conflict’’ there.
The council had an independent review carried out and has been working on a plan to address its governance issues.
Speaking to media in Wellington yesterday, Mahuta said the Department of Internal Affairs had made itself available in order to support the council.
She said she took ‘‘a very positive view’’ about the way democratically elected leaders were chosen in New Zealand.
That view was questioned by Massey University academic Andy Asquith, who said there was a lack of experience within local government and that we needed to ‘‘raise the bar’’ when it came to who was elected.
Mahuta said: ‘‘The challenges that certain councils have faced have sometimes been because of personality issues, or sometimes because of the inability to reach an agreement on some pretty significant and substantial challenges before them. So it’s a case-by-case basis.
‘‘But we need to ensure, in terms of how the legislation is applied to councils, that firstly they’re able to make their own decisions, and secondly, if they request advice, DIA is there to support, and if concerns are raised there are levels of thresholds that need to be met in order for me to take action.’’
Horowhenua
Michael Feyen’s mayoralty at the Horowhenua District Council made headlines over the years.
During his time at the helm, councillors walked out of a meeting en masse, and Feyen copped a no-confidence vote. The district council was also forced to apologise to one of its constituents after Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier found the council released emails without letting her know.
However, the now-ousted mayor told Stuff last year he was proud of what he achieved in his three years in the hot seat, despite believing his council put the kibosh on his best ideas.
Christchurch
In 2019 amajor investigation revealed a culture of secrecy among leaders at Christchurch City Council to keep negative information out of the news.
A report from Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier raised concerns that there was evidence to suggest some of the council’s most senior staff deliberately altered reports and hid negative information from councillors, the mayor and the public to protect its image.
Auckland
In 2018, headlines were made after nearly half the members of Auckland Council signed a letter of no confidence in mayor Phil Goff after allegations of bullying and a culture of distrust.
At the time, Goff was accused of having an A team and a B team, which saw the A team treated well, and the B team getting a phone call the day before any meetings of the governing body.
Nelson
The number of full council committees was reduced from five to three in October, and there were votes on who would chair the committees that remained. Mayor Rachel Reese said the aim was to enable the council to react more quickly and efficiently to challenges relating to Covid-19.
But councillors who opposed the move said it was politically motivated, that ‘‘alternative voices’’ were being removed, and robust questioning was being shut down.
After his first year, councillor Rohan O’Neill-Stevens told Stuff he sometimes felt like he had to lie about his experience in order not to put off younger voters from political engagement.
Councillor Rachel Sanson, who has lost her chair role in the shake-up, said the year had ‘‘almost broken’’ her.
Hamilton
In 2019, a Hamilton councillor made a tearful apology for parking in a disabled parking spot during a citizenship ceremony at Hamilton Gardens.
The councillor also said she didn’t mean to cause offence after wearing an anti-vaccine T-shirt to an autism awareness event, and apologised for saying during a debate that people would be affected if a fat person fell on them.
In 2017, Hamilton councillor Mark Bunting made a written apology after forwarding a Facebook message of a lewd road sign to a freelance journalist.
Among the costlier lessons for Hamilton was the city’s venture into hosting V8 Supercars races from 2008-12. A report put the total expenditure from ratepayer coffers at $39.4m.
Kaipara
In 2012 the Government put a panel of commissioners in place to run the Kaipara district, to help deal with an $85m debt, much of it from awastewater scheme in the lower Northland east coast town of Mangawhai.
The council had consulted on the basis the scheme would cost less than $17m but in 2011 the cost of the scheme was revealed to be $62.4m.
Westland
A decision by the Westland District Council to build a $1.3m stopbank at Franz Josef to protect the town’s wastewater treatment plant from flooding was not well made nor money well spent, a report from the auditor-general, published in March 2019, said.
He was concerned about ‘‘the apparent confusion or disagreement among the elected members about what had been agreed, and about the way the decision was subsequently carried out’’.
The following month, the auditor-general’s office criticised the mayor and deputy for not following legal process when they appointed directors to council-controlled organisations.
Hawke’s Bay
The regional council decided in 2017 to write off $14m spent by commercial arm Hawke’s Bay Regional Investment Company trying to develop an irrigation scheme for the Ruataniwha Plains.
Debate had raged for several years over the council’s backing for a proposal to build a dam and create amassive reservoir in the foothills of the Ruahine Range.
The final blow to the project was a July 2017 Supreme Court decision ruling a land-swap required to free up Ruahine conservation estate land required for the scheme had not been legal.
Wellington
Wellington City Council has been dogged by division and dysfunction over the past year, with an independent facilitator recruited in April to help iron out problems among councillors.
Tensions were exposed in a series of emails leaked to Stuff, with one councillor calling for his colleagues to stop ‘‘bitching and moaning’’, questions over mayor Andy Foster’s leadership, and a claim that councillors had failed to act responsibly in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Things did not cool down evem after an independent facilitator came on board, with councillor Fleur Fitzsimons publicly challenging Foster’s warning to councillors that they should not comment publicly on plans for the central library.
In August, councillor Sean Rush turned his back on a waiata. And before a vote on selling Shelly Bay land a few weeks ago, councillor Jenny Condie accused Foster of using underhand tactics to persuade her against voting in favour of the sale.
This week the mayor was photographed helping protesters opposing the Shelly Bay development.
Where the problems start
Massey University director of the public sector management group Dr Andy Asquith said one of the key issueswith local government was that there was ‘‘a problem with the governance model’’. ‘‘People within local government quite often don’t understand the model and what their position and role is in that model.’’
Asquith said there was a lack of experience within local government, which he called ‘‘a fundamental failure’’. ‘‘Councillors don’t believe that they need education, training and development and don’t invest in it.’’
In terms of possible solutions, Asquith said we needed to ‘‘raise the bar’’ when it came towho was elected.
‘‘First of all we need to make sure that people are elected with a skill set that allows them to grow into the role if they don’t know it already. Alongside that, we need to have chief executives primarily, senior officers, that are up to the job.’’
In Asquith’s opinion, a fundamental review of the legislationwas needed.