The Dunedin City Council has taken its first step down a route that could end in a unitary authority in the city.
The council has ordered a report into a possible merger between it and the Otago Regional Council, including their combined 25 elected officials and 783 staff.
While ORC chairman Stephen Woodhead was diplomatic about the idea yesterday, he made it clear he was ''not supportive''.
Mr Woodhead questioned how a merged body could look after only the parts of rivers within Dunedin boundaries, and whether suggested efficiencies would actually occur.
Progress on the idea can begin a complex Local Government Commission process.
The decision yesterday to research the issue escalated quickly from a proposal to support the city's community boards to work with the ORC on harbour and coastal issues.
At annual plan meetings this week community board chairmen brought up issues about wharves and boat ramps in the harbour or on the coast.
Councillors yesterday voted unanimously to support the community boards in ''facilitating a joint approach'' with the ORC.
During debate, Cr Lee Vandervis raised the idea of a unitary authority, one he
has been pushing for years. Cr David Benson-Pope told him to ''stop bleating'' and put forward a motion.
This Cr Vandervis did, asking that ''staff prepare a report for council outlining at a high level the advantages and disadvantages of becoming a unitary authority, and the process to progress this''.
He said the ORC was created ''as a sop to unification''.
It was established in 1989 when local bodies, including the Otago Catchment Board, pest destruction boards, noxious plants authorities and united councils, were amalgamated.
Cr Vandervis said it had been assured a large income when Port Otago was ''gifted to them''.
Having two elections and ''competing heads'' of the Dunedin area had not worked well.
He raised the ORC's decision to appeal a council resource consent decision to allow a developer to build two units on the site of a flood-damaged South Dunedin house as the sort of problem that arose.
Cr Aaron Hawkins said he had ''anxieties around democracy and representation'', although he voted in support.
Mayor Dave Cull did too, and said recent amendments to the Local Government Act ''focused almost entirely on the Government's preoccupation with rationalising councils''.
Deputy mayor Chris Staynes said plenty of situations with two bureaucracies working against each other had not been good for the city.
He mentioned the Ross Creek Reservoir refurbishment. A cost blowout from about $3.5million to about $5.5million was blamed last year on an ORC consent requiring more work than originally envisaged.
Cr Vandervis' motion passed unanimously.
Mr Woodhead responded after the meeting that while he was ''happy to have the conversation'', he did not see ''underlying issues, drivers or benefits''.
''I don't want to say it's a waste of time, but I'm not supportive.''
He said regional council boundaries were based on river catchments, as ''what happens downstream in a river is influenced by everything that goes on upstream''.
A Dunedin unitary authority would look after the Taieri River from Hyde, but have no influence over the water beyond that point.
There would also have to be decisions about ORC responsibilities outside Dunedin.
Mr Woodhead said the ORC had the lowest number of staff, per head of population, in New Zealand.
A Local Government Commission spokesman said the first step after a successful application was the commission's agreement to assess local government in an area, ''which is the first stage in a very long process''.
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Comments
Once again Vandervis is being a bit silly. Could this be a way he can help Michael Laws become the next mayor of Dunedin? both appear to want to demolish different local bodies for their own ego's, though less than legitimate ways. Maybe the DCC are eyeing up the ORC's funding reserves and income from Port Otago and other wise investments around NZ. If the ORC is amalgamated with the DCC, will all the other district councils have to increase their staff number to pick up the workload the DCC will drop in their laps. that would lead to increased costs for everyone across the board. people need to think about the long term outcomes.
I dont often agree with councillor Van der vis, but this idea to investigate a merger with the ORC is an excellent one! This will prove interesting.
The other point that should be looked at by our councill is taking water rates out of the rate demand and meter and charge for the water we use (and waste). I do not often water my garden or lawn, and dont see why I should be charged the same as those who have, and use, various watering systems and have a swimming pool. Many of these watering systems are wasteful. And I think we would find that the city uses much less water and save money in the process.
Seems to me the issues being raised as examples of problems with multiple authorities are actually quite the opposite - ORC doing the right thing and questioning DCC's choices when DCC might not be doing things quite right.
The sooner these leeches and bludgers are incorporated with the DCC the better. They are and have been a drain on ratepayers for far too long.
The ORC do not listen to the ratepayers of Dunedin. Even going through the correct procedures to make submissions, giving ideas and suggestions falls on deaf ears. They are more interested in farming & water & irrigation of the huge area of Otago than the details of one city within it. The 'new improved bus service' for Dunedin is a great example. What an expensive disaster. Lets do it before they spend vast amounts of our money on a new building to house themselves and get ever more bogged down in excessively complicated administrative procedure. Simplify things and put our money back into our into society, not into buildings and car parks for staff.
Maybe I'm missing something, but I'm not sure why Cr Vandervis seems to think that the creation of a Dunedin Unitary Authority would mean that the DCC would get its hands on the ORC's Port Otago dividends...