Vote goes against support for public hearings

THE Dunedin City Council’s decision to scrap public hearings on its annual budget has been criticised as ‘‘bare minimum democracy’’.

The rebuke came from Cr Aaron Hawkins as councillors at yesterday’s full council meeting voted to drop hearings from the 201718 annual plan process.

The council would instead trial new ways of consulting this year, selected from a ‘‘menu’’ of potential initiatives, from a cafestyle forum and dropin sessions, to a farmers’ market stall, councillors decided.

The option of limited consultation was introduced with local government reforms in 2014, which allowed councils to skip consultation if their annual plans were not significantly different from longterm plan (LTP) forecasts.

The council still proposed to run a ‘‘community engagement’’ process this year, offering multiple participation options, council strategy and governance general manager Sandy Graham told yesterday’s meeting.

However, public hearings could be timeconsuming and costly, and ‘‘we didn’t think [they] added anything to that’’, she said.

That concerned Cr Hawkins, who told the meeting the hearings remained the best way for people to talk directly to councillors about their aspirations for the community.

Other ways of talking to ratepayers should be explored, but ‘‘we can, and should, do both’’, he said.

Democracy might be ‘‘inefficient and costly’’, but dropping the hearings was ‘‘dangerously close to accepting bare minimum democracy’’, he said.

‘‘This is certainly not why I’m here.’’

He won support from some councillors, including Cr Jim O’Malley, who said the council risked a perception problem by dropping hearings, and Cr Marie Laufiso, who said the process was not about money.

‘‘It’s about that continual dialogue with the community,’’ she said.

Others disagreed, including deputy mayor Chris Staynes, who said the council had ‘‘a great opportunity here to try something different’’.

Formal hearings attracted the same faces each year, and the views of those who presented in person often carried more weight in councillors’ minds than those who were reluctant to do so, he believed.

In a year with no significant changes from LTP forecasts, it was the right time to try a different approach, he believed.

Cr Christine Garey agreed, saying the change was a chance to show the community ‘‘we want to do things differently, and we want to engage with our community more effectively’’.

Mayor Dave Cull said he did not mind seeing the same faces at each hearing, ‘‘because they are the people that care’’.

However, the change was a chance to improve the way the council heard from its community, and needed to be given ‘‘the best shot we can’’, he said.

Councillors voted 96 against a resolution from Cr Hawkins to keep the hearings, and instead opted for alternatives to be rolled out later this year.