Ministerial review of ARC urged

By WAYNE THOMPSON

Auckland rates revolt groups have asked Local Government Minister Chris Carter to intervene in the running of the Auckland Regional Council.

A ministerial review of the council's performance is the latest bid by the Regional Ratepayers Rebellion campaign to force the council to reset its rates or resign.

It comes as a campaign co-ordinator David Thornton claims 100,000 of the council's ratepayers have either refused or are unable to pay the full amount due.

Mr Thornton said grounds for seeking the ministerial investigation included failure by the council to adequately consult the public about its new rates policy and to receive views with an open mind.

But the group was also claiming the council failed its duty to adopt rating policies which would promote the interests of the community.

A spokesman for the minister's office said yesterday Mr Carter had received the six-page complaint and was seeking advice.

The minister's powers to intervene were set out in legislation and limited.

The spokesman said a high level of mismanagement had to be found before the minister could even consider intervening. It had occurred only once in about 25 years.

The ARC chief executive, Jo Brosnahan, said the auditor-general reviewed the process in the council's annual plan preparation and hearing and gave it the all clear.

She was confident the minister would come to the same conclusion .

In July the council spurned the rates rebels' calls to reset the rates this year, saying to do so would impose several million dollars of additional costs on ratepayers.

Mr Thornton said the auditor-general's office could not comment on the quality of the decision-making.

That was something only a ministerial review could decide.

Mr Thornton said he realised it required an extraordinary situation for the minister to intervene but there was evidence of such a situation.

Petitions and public meetings had supported the sacking of councillors and a commissioner being appointed to run the council, as had happened to the Rodney District Council three years ago.

An ARC spokesman said yesterday the number of unpaid rates bills to receive a 10 per cent penalty would not be available until the next council meeting on September 22.

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