KEY POINTS:
Staff at Auckland City are not fully on board a culture change, some are not engaged and others are clearly resistant, a report has found.
The level of understanding among staff of the required changes is patchy, according to Doug Martin, a Wellington-based public sector consultant hired to review the culture of the country's largest council.
Mr Martin's "culture review", released yesterday, said an organisation development programme created by chief executive David Rankin laid the foundations for a sustained lift in the culture, structure, processes and reputation of the council.
"However, the challenge of effecting an organisation-wide change in culture and behaviour remains," he said.
Mr Martin was hired at a cost of $20,000 by the new council in December last year to review the culture of the council and look at ways of making the organisation less bureaucratic and more user-friendly.
It followed a series of scandals - from a new logo to a damning parliamentary report into water pricing - and research in 2006 that showed that the public's perception of the council was "mediocre".
It also follows moves by Mr Rankin, and pushed through by Deputy Mayor David Hay, to reduce the power of community boards and increase the power of council officers.
Mr Martin said the organisation development programme identified several areas that needed improvement, including little emphasis on customer service, lengthy and convoluted processes, a hesitancy to take accountability, underdeveloped leadership and a tendency for some staff to see their role as a regulator rather than a service provider.
Given its age and long-established culture, a three-to-five-year time horizon for the programme to a "GREAT culture" was probably realistic, but he said "tangible results should become evident over the next 12 months".
Mr Martin said outside stakeholders spoken to as part of the review reported a frustrating degree of variability in the performance of the council in its dealings with customers.
Stakeholders included Auckland Chamber of Commerce chief executive Michael Barnett, Heart of the City chief executive Alex Swney, Auckland Regional Council chief executive Peter Winder and Manukau chief executive Leigh Auton. Ordinary ratepayers were not interviewed for the report.
Mayor John Banks said the council was made up of some very good people but the report showed there was a lot of room for improvement.
"It's a matter of the kind of culture, discipline and values that we must commit to to become a world class public organisation and discharge our obligations to the ratepayers as public servants," he said.
Mr Rankin welcomed the findings, saying Mr Martin supported the direction of the organisation development programme and made suggestions to improve council effectiveness and customer service.
Mr Martin also criticised the council over the "very rapid growth" in operating spending. It was not sustainable and had to be brought into line with the council's commitment to contain rates increases in the face of a softening economy.
An example of soaring costs has been in the area of consultants where costs have risen from $24 million in 2004-2005 to $40.8 million in 2006-2007.
