Outside input valued
ASK THE MAYOR
John Duncan
asks ‘‘now that the Nelson City Council has deemed democracy to be irrelevant, can the Mayor clarify how external appointees to council are remunerated and why they have got full voting rights?’’
Council’s decision to make external appointments to two committees of council has surprised some members of the community.
But while it may seem like something new, it is not.
There’ve been external appointments, with voting rights, to our council since I was first elected in 2007.
Our neighbours have appointments.
TDC has a commercial subcommittee where 3 of the 5 members are external appointments – with voting rights. MDC has external appointments to all 4 of its committees – with voting rights.
In making external appointments councils have not deemed democracy irrelevant.
Councils are a creature of statute. How we operate is prescribed in the Local Government Act 2002.
Parliament passed the law allowing external appointments to committees to help us perform our duty and serve our communities, not as a way of trivialising local democracy.
Parliament also protected democracy by barring external appointments to full council, made up of the mayor and councillors.
The voters of Nelson are the decision makers on the membership of full council. I think that is right and proper. Full council controls the appointments to committees, whether elected or appointed.
Full council controls
external
what committees can and can’t do, the financial limits, and the ability to operate only within the existing policy set by council.
Parliament then set another proviso. External appointments to committees can only be made if the appointment brings a special skill or knowledge that will assist in the committee’s work.
The mix of skills at our council table is like many around New Zealand.
It’s not quite like a box of chocolates because you do have a fair idea what you’re going to get when you look at the ballot paper. Specialist skills in audit, risk, finance, and resource management planning don’t fall out of an election process in any quantity.
Yet these are some of the critical skills where good governance direction is required if we’re to achieve value in local democracy.
Some might say elected members should just carry on whatever the ultimate skill set and face the consequences on election day.
I don’t agree. That would be wilful neglect, especially when Parliament expressly provided a remedy. In my view, by recognising gaps in knowledge and skill, council has shown good leadership.
By making these appointments council has also followed best practice.
That good practice is endorsed by the Auditor General in her review of Local Government performance.
You might think an alternative is to commission external advice. But Parliament also directed that all our advice comes from the chief executive, who is our only employee.
Mayor and councillors have no power to commission external advice or directly employ other staff.
The chief executive does that on our behalf. And ultimately this isn’t about receiving different advice.
It is about testing the advice we are given, asking robust and probing questions and ensuring we are receiving best advice before decisions are made. That is where external appointments with specialist skills can add enormous value to the quality of decisions.
My observation is that they help improve the performance of every other member sitting at the committee table.
External appointments are paid in accordance with their qualifications but also with recognition that this is service to the community.
The maximum an appointed member can be paid at our council is $12,000 per annum.
The external appointments will vote at their respective committees.
Casting a vote carries a civic responsibility. It is essential external appointments vote so that their participation on the committee is informed by that civic responsibility.
Input must be transparent; you want to see what influence they are having. And all members of committees must be publicly accountable for their actions. The way we record civic responsibility, transparency, and accountability is via a vote.
And the final check in the system, one that protects democracy, is engaged citizens and a strong independent media.
Council and its committees will be watched, critiqued and challenged. That’s democracy in action and I will staunchly uphold it.