Editorial: Ratepayers need to be part of decision-making

Andrew Austin, Editor of Hawke's Bay Today.

I reckon that more often than not these days ratepayers scratch their heads at the decisions that unelected officials make in councils where politicians were elected to be accountable to the public.

Late last year, Hawke's Bay Regional Council officials decided that, ahead of a government inquiry into the Havelock North gastro crisis, they would embark on an investigation to determine whether the contamination was in part or wholly the result of resource consent conditions not being met.

An agenda report to be discussed at the regional council's full council meeting tomorrow shows this ended up costing $445,000.

It may have been okay if this investigation had been simply to gather evidence for the inquiry, but clearly it was not.

The regional council's unelected officials decided to go ahead and prosecute the Hastings District Council.

The regional council, after input from the elected chairman, eventually dropped the two charges against the Hastings District Council because that council conceded the breach of resource consent conditions and agreed to not contest two infringement notices, resulting in two fines of $500 apiece.

To date the regional council has spent more than $1 million on internal salary and external costs related to the Havelock North gastro outbreak (including the fee paid to the very expensive law firm Chen Palmer).

Don't get me wrong, managers have a role to play in councils, but they need to be accountable to the councillors, who in turn take their orders from the ratepayers.

It is time our elected representatives started exerting control over unelected officials who seem to have the freedom to throw ratepayers' money around as if it was confetti at a wedding.