Dr Scott Sheeran is a barrister and a former public servant and management consultant. He was National’s Wellington Central candidate at the 2023 general election.
OPINION
Wellington City Council’s performance is the subject of intense ongoing debate, including with the Government announcing it will appoint aCrown observer.
For all the views aired, I think there are still two key points largely missing from this discussion. These are relevant to what can meaningfully improve local governance in Wellington.
Firstly, the media is unfairly singling out Mayor Tory Whanau for criticism regarding the council’s performance. While I have real questions about the mayor’s leadership, the reality is that a select number of council officers, particularly in management, bear significant responsibility for a number of the most problematic council decisions.
Secondly, the divisive implementation of cycleways in Wellington has been reduced to a simplistic but artificial “for” or “against”. The progressive versus conservative forces is a catchy rallying cry, but it’s inaccurate.
We need to recognise that concerns with the city council’s approach to cycleways is fundamentally built on a failure to respect the Local Government Act or to prioritise public transport. Many people support cycleways - just not the council’s approach to them.
I’d encourage people to dig deeper into its decision-making and judge for themselves, as the NZ Herald has done for the Reading Cinema deal and the Wellington Airport shares sale. What you’ll find is astonishing, and not in a positive way.
This certainly was my experience, in advising the Shared Spaces Karori community group that has lodged an Ombudsman’s complaint against the council’s decision for the Karori Connections transport project. Karori is often described as Wellington’s largest suburb.
Before anyone jumps to conclusions and labels me, I’ll be clear that I support cycleways as a part of a holistic transport solution. I’m pro-climate mitigation and emissions reduction. My concern with the council’s decision-making is grounded in the lack of delivery against these objectives, and more significantly, a failure to comply with the law.
The Local Government Act, among other things, sets obligations for good democratic decision-making.
Based on the act, the Court of Appeal recently found against the council concerning its cycleway and roading changes in Thorndon Quay. Council officers violated the act by putting only their preferred option to councillors, depriving the council of its ability to consider the “reasonably practical options” and their respective advantages and disadvantages.
'Wellington City Council had earmarked the Karori bus route, which is the city’s busiest, as needing peak-time bus lanes.' Photo / Mark Mitchell
In the case of Karori, the officers’ pre-determination of the cycleway decision is actually more serious. The officers told the community the proposed route of the cycleway was not open for consultation, as the councillors had already made a binding decision on it. Except that previously they told the councillors essentially the opposite.
To generate support, the council indicated to the community the proposal would make the bus service faster. But no supporting assessment was provided and, in reality, a council officer had briefed councillors that there would be “slightly longer travel times” for Karori bus users and other traffic.
Also, the council had earmarked the Karori bus route, which is the city’s busiest, as needing peak-time bus lanes. Yet the proposal removed - rather than added - those peak-time bus lanes. The proposal included buses, cyclists, and cars all meshing into the same road space through Karori’s main shopping district.
The council knew that emergency services had concerns about speed bumps along primary roads, such as Karori Rd, the only way in and out of the suburb. But the key officers didn’t request their views on the Karori proposal, and didn’t mention any such concerns in their report to councillors. They told the councillors that 41% of submitters opposed the proposal, when their own comments suggest they appreciated that 68% of submitters were opposed.
The net effect for the community is likely to be slower public transport, more traffic congestion, safety challenges, emergency vehicle access problems, and increased carbon emissions. Good local government and lawful decision-making does not produce results like these.
The Local Government Act is fundamental to upholding local democracy.
In my view, key Wellington City Council officers are not implementing their decision-making obligations under the act. The media has previously reported that officers withhold information from councillors or share selectively. This undermines the effectiveness of local government, including the work of the many great councillors and officers at the council, community members, and experts.
It’s difficult for Wellington community members to enforce the law against the council through the courts. There’s a massive asymmetry in resources and information.
As with the Thorndon case, valid legal challenges are often too late, or after the fact, to make a real difference. And without accountability or consequences, there’s little incentive for the council management to learn from past misconduct.
I couldn’t put it better than former Labour councillor Fleur Fitzsimons, who in 2022 told council officers regarding the cycleway plan that “this council needs to bring people on board with this plan, and that means listening respectfully to people who oppose it, because that’s what we do in a democracy”.
She added, “I hope that council officers will take this criticism in the spirit it’s meant, to try and make this plan successful and its implementation in Wellington”.
It seems, though, they were not listening, but hopefully they will in future.
