Hawke’s Bay regional councillors failed to ‘read the room’ - Xan Harding

Hawke's Bay regional councillor Xan Harding says the public’s impression of Hawke's Bay Regional Council is at a low ebb. Photo / Warren Buckland

Xan Harding is a Hawke’s Bay regional councillor.

OPINION

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council (HBRC) doesn’t listen.

That headline is a regular refrain these days. Amazingly, despite floating one of the lowest average rates increases of all local authorities in our region, HBRC has somehow still managed to attract the most opprobrium.

Such a remarkably bad state of reputational affairs raises a simple question - why?

Perhaps it was always going to be so.

A cyclone of historic proportions that overwhelmed the design capacity of flood defences swept all before it - lives, livelihoods and possessions, as well as reputation and trust.

People displaced from their homes or their livelihoods are unlikely to feel fondly towards organisations responsible for keeping them safe from natural disasters.

Catastrophic events naturally generate a mood for accountability and leadership change.

But is it just a recent phenomenon? Plausibly, there are longer-term issues at play.

The consultation period has shown just how many people love Te Mata Peak, Xan Harding writes. Photo / Kirsten Simcox

Throw in a previously fractionated council and a history of politicking around major regional environmental issues. Add a dash of social media vitriol and stir the pot.

The public’s impression of HBRC is at a low ebb and is unlikely to improve until there is public confidence councillors and staff actually listen to members of the community and take their views into account.

The sad truth is despite the best efforts and great intentions of HBRC’s functionaries, there is a public perception of an uncaring and bloated organisation that fails to listen.

At the end of 2023, the council launched a public consultation on its revenue and financing policy. The proposal included a large number of once-in-a-generation changes to rates apportionment amongst ratepayers for council activities.

Topping it off, the council included a proposal to move from land value to capital value for general rates. The LV to CV proposal received an overwhelmingly negative response in submissions.

A majority of councillors decided to discount that response and voted to proceed with the change to CV.

While those who voted for CV did so with good intent, they failed to fully appreciate the cumulative effect of all of the changes and “read the room”.

The end result was further reinforcement of the view the council doesn’t listen and further undermining of public confidence in the organisation.

Roll forward to May 2024 and the council was consulting on rates again, this time on an abridged Long-Term Plan.

A rates calculator allowed individual ratepayers to see for the first time how the combined changes would affect them personally.

It quickly became apparent the proposed average rates increase of 19 per cent disguised a significant minority of ratepayers who are set to suffer much larger increases, in some cases well over 100 per cent.

Unsurprisingly, those at the sharp end of the increases quickly became vocal opponents, while the winners in the rates reshuffle remained largely quiet.

Counterintuitively, two proposals in the Long-Term Plan to reduce rates received the most opposition.

What should have been a consultation centred on cyclone recovery, how to apportion the cost of the Category 2 flood protection measures and the need for the council to focus on core business, became a sideshow dominated by the proposals to defund Te Mata Park and Hawke’s Bay Tourism.

While these two issues were an unfortunate diversion from core recovery business, they did serve to highlight two important points - the passionate support for our iconic peak and the significant economic and social benefits that accrue from tourism in our region.

The outcome of the Long-Term Plan consultation now lies in the hands of we elected councillors, faced with the same duty as all politicians - to listen to the public, while making decisions that are in the best interest of the whole community as we see it.

The reality is sometimes that will drive councillors to side with the weight of public submissions, and sometimes against it.

But in doing so, elected officials must give weight to the need to build and maintain trust and confidence in local institutions.

Democracy is alive and well in our regional council. I am privileged to serve alongside a committed group of councillors who work hard and collegially for their constituents, admirably supported by talented and committed staff.

For all that, the council has much room to improve regarding taking the public with it. I can assure you we are listening. Let’s hope it shows in our future decisions.