Elections: Readers have their say

The results of the Dunedin City Council elections will be released sometime today.

As the election drew to a close, we talked to three Otago Daily Times readers about candidates' calls for efficiencies, and asked what sort of efficiencies could be made, and what services should be spared the knife.

Now, I don't know what council employees have to cope with so it is hard for me to know whether we get value for money.

Years ago, when I was working, government departments cut costs by laying off a whole lot of people, but since then you have to wonder whether there are still people out there who are not fully occupied, or who do not work to strict goals.

I do worry there are too many jobs done by outside consultants when we must have some wonderful ideas and wonderful workers at the council.

Maybe, if costs have to be cut, departments should look at the way they spent and how much they spend on consultants.

I would be surprised if the council does not already try and work in the most efficient way, but I would rather they looked at the way they worked before cutting things we might need.

That's a very hard one to answer because there could be so many unintended consequences.

On the face of it, for the most part, our councillors and council departments are reasonably sensible and there is no wild spending.

With any cost-cutting measure there can be job losses, and that can have significant human impact and an impact on the economy.

It is hard to make across-the-board statements when there are so many potential pitfalls, and when the consequences might be far reaching.

For example, if we cut costs on roads, then how many accidents might that cause.

Is risking safety and wellbeing, for example, satisfactory to save money? We have some big expenses, such as the stadium, but we also should have a commitment to make them work, rather than cut costs and hope for the best.

I honestly do not know where they could make savings.

The problem with the council is that it is so hard to understand what it does because so much of it is secret or not communicated very well.

There is a perception that the council spends on swanky things - even the magazine it uses to say what is happening, City Talk, is glossy and high grade.

Maybe spending some time looking at what they do and whether they are always going for the smartest option is necessary.

Whatever happens, I don't think they should be cutting anything that has an impact on their responsibility to the environment.

Resource Management Act matters can't be scrimped on when they set us up for years to come. Getting back to some good old-fashioned community service would be a good thing.