When councillors were asked at a recent meeting to decide whether to consult, they were told there could be "some public perception risk that we are not providing a forum for our community to discuss their requests for income or their concerns with us".
When asked, Napier Mayor Bill Dalton said he did not think the lack of formal consultation would be of concern for the community, because the council's "main plan" was the Long Term one.
"What happened is the annual plan process became just effectively a succession of people coming out with a begging bowl," he said.
"So what we've done is we've said look, unless there's a major change from the LTP the [Local Government Act] doesn't require us to go out and consult on the annual plan."
However, he said as part of the early engagement for the Long Term Plan, council would still be inviting feedback on the Annual Plan by going out into the community.
"We'll be doing all sorts of things but we're not having a formal two day session when people come with their begging bowls," he said. "We're going to go out to the community and find out what the community really wants.
"It's just a far more efficient way of doing it and gives the opportunity to get better feedback from the public."
Council director corporate services Adele Henderson said the pre-consultation would begin during May, or June.
Mr Dalton said as a lot of organisations used the annual plan to ask for funding, council had increased the amount of funding set aside for community groups - which would be available on a contestable application basis.
Undertaking formal consultation would have required "significant resources" for council.
The average cost of the annual plan consultation process is not known - Ms Henderson said direct costs such as advertising and printing cost around $20,000, but staff time spent on consultation was not recorded, so the total could not be calculated.
"Consulting is a labour intensive process, and if there is no material change from the LTP on items already consulted for the act does not require any further consultation with the public," she said. "We are in effect continuing to carry out what was agreed".
Central Hawke's Bay District Council is also taking a different approach to consulting - by holding "Project Thrive community meetings". These began earlier this month, and will be held through the district.
The meetings are not intended to follow the format of a regular public meeting, but to be allow discussion between residents, with facilitators and councillors listening and perhaps
incorporating some of those ideas into the Long Term Plan.
A spokesman for Local Government New Zealand - a lobby group for councils - said although councils had the option not to consult, "communities have an expectation that there should be avenues to have their voice heard by their local council".
"LGNZ believes community engagement is an important part of council business," he said.
"If a council opts to not consult on an annual plan, as allowed in the Local Government Act, our view is that it should provide other opportunities for people to provide comment and raise issues throughout the year."
The consultation periods for the Hawke's Bay Regional, Hastings District, and Wairoa District Councils close early May.