David Thornton: It's time to sack the ARC and appoint a commissioner

COMMENT

Four years ago the Minister of Local Government of the day, Sandra Lee, instigated a ministerial review of the Rodney District Council. That review recommended the appointment of a commissioner to run the affairs of the council until new elections could be held.

The reason for the review and subsequent commission appointment was that the council had become dysfunctional and could not govern.

Today the Auckland Regional Council is heading in a similar direction, for a variety of reasons, but essentially because it has lost the confidence and trust of the constituency it is meant to serve and is not governing in the best interest of its people.

The purpose of local government, as set out in the Local Government Act, is "to enable democratic local decision-making and action by, and on behalf of communities". It is clear that the ARC is not acting or making decisions on behalf of the regional community of Auckland.

The ARC took absolutely no notice of the hundreds of submissions to its draft annual plan that opposed its new rating policy. It totally ignored the experienced and thoughtful submissions made by the local city councils to its rating policy. These warned of the dangerous direction the ARC was taking, and of the likely significant and harmful impact on residential ratepayers.

With no experience in rates policy-setting and collecting, the ARC acted in manner which showed a serious lack of management ability.

While the Auditor-General approved of the process carried out in the ARC's annual plan preparation and hearing, that office could not comment on the quality of the decision-making. That is something only a ministerial review could decide on.

Since the outbreak of the so-called regional ratepayers' rebellion, the ARC has acted in an arrogant and stubborn way which has raised the ire of its constituents.

The comment by one councillor in a radio interview that he had heard other councillors "laughing and joking" about the rates issue is but one staggering example of what the ARC thinks of the genuine concerns being expressed by thousands of ratepayers who find themselves financially disadvantaged by the savage introduction of direct rating.

At the time of the Rodney District troubles I argued strongly against the appointment of a commissioner and almost begged those discordant Rodney councillors to resume their duties on behalf of their residents. I do not support ministerial intervention in local government; it is abhorrent to my belief that local government must be controlled at a local level.

Regrettably, however, I can find no further way to reason with the ARC to mend its ways, starting with a resetting of its rates this year.

At an extraordinary meeting of the council on August 13 I offered the council some proposals for consideration. The response was yet another example of the arrogance of the majority of councillors in dealing with their constituents - some to the extent of refusing to accept emails and phone calls.

The ARC has totally failed to respond to the unbelievably loud outcry over the rates policy.

There is now growing evidence of a large-scale refusal to pay rate demands, and the ARC is refusing to reveal how many ratepayers have either not paid at all or paid less than was demanded, and by means other than those specified by the council.

This level of disobedience must be affecting the rates collection process to a huge extent, yet the council continues to deny the extent of the problem. All of this amounts to a failure to govern.

On those grounds alone, the Minister of Local Government must appoint a ministerial review to ensure at least that all the facts are made public. And if that reveals the need for a commissioner to be appointed, so be it.

* David Thornton, a member of the Glenfield Community Board, is a spokesman for the Resident Ratepayers Rebellion Group.

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