Local Board Survey: Puketapapa

The New Zealand Herald has surveyed the 21 local boards to see how they are getting on after six months of the Super City.

The Herald asked the chairs of the local boards six questions and to score the first four questions out of 10. Not all boards gave a score.

Here are the responses from Richard Barter, chairman of the Puketapapa board.

1. After six months, how well is the local board model working for your community?

Score: 7/10


2. How are things going between your local board and the Auckland Council governing body)?

Score: 8/10


3. How are things going between your local board and the CCOs?

Score: 7/10


4. Do you think local boards are living up to the promise of empowering communities?

Score: 6/10


5. What improvements would you like to see made to the local board model? (No score required)

6. Please feel free to comment on any other issues about the local board model.

Board members face many challenges due to the fact that it will be some years before the new model has settled in. Officers are flat out dealing with shaping policy, the new roles they find themselves in and constraints both fiscal and because of staff positions yet to be filled. The Governing Body like the Local Boards is flat out consulting with their stakeholders and communities to create funding agreements for the next financial year, short and long term plans so the much needed issue of delegation of responsibilities to Local Boards is yet to be addressed.

This is my fourth term, the previous three being on Community Boards. I believe that the model is a significant improvement on what has gone before. Feedback from residents is that they are already benefiting from the increased access to elected representatives and staff.

It could be argued that the transition process has been rushed, even if the change had been postponed to the next term, I am not convinced we would be a lot better off.

It is early to judge how well the relationship will be between the CCO's and Local Boards. All the right noises are being made, but already we seem to be on the same side of the fence as the public over some issues, the upgrade of Dominion Rd being one. Generally there seems to be genuine goodwill from the Councillors towards the Boards and a willingness to work collaboratively. The support from staff from senior management down to Local Board advisors has in my experience been outstanding.

Managing the 21 Boards seems to be stretching staff resources with "clustering" being a common vehicle. The problem is that clusters were not part of the model put together by the Royal Commission or the ATA so there are some problems including that of representation.

It is apparent that there a hugely differing needs between the Local Boards due to their geography challenging the one size fits all model.