In July, Central Otago district councillors agreed to consult the public on the districtisation of council services.
Currently, 82% of services are rated at a district level — under the proposed changes, all services, except community grants, would be rated at a district level.
On Monday in Cromwell, Mr Cadogan and council staff spoke to a town hall-style meeting, covering the reasons for the move to districtisation. It was the fourth meeting, with one being held in each of the council wards — Vincent, Maniototo and Teviot Valley.
Earlier this year, members of the Cromwell Community Board said they were blindsided by the proposal and felt the council was setting itself up to have a "land grab" of the board’s assets.
In a publicly released submission to council, the board said it was concerned about the speed changes being implemented.
The proposed restructure would introduce "sweeping changes to the way community boards function and interact with council", it said.
"It is still unclear what the board stands to lose and hence it follows that the district does not understand what it stands to gain because of these proposed changes."
It was concerned the proposed changes would weaken the community board’s voice and input to council.
There was a "risk of unintended negative consequences and undoing those would be much more complex than getting it right in the first place."
Nothing seemed to have changed on Monday when about 150 people turned out on one of the coldest nights of the year.
Cromwell Community Board chairwoman Anna Harrison said the language and things that had been said were changing over time and it was really important everyone was keeping abreast of what was being said.
"The Cromwell Community Board is not worried about whether or not they hold the purse strings for some of the things that might happen, but we are worried about whether or not we really have a say in the things that are happening in Cromwell. And I can see already that there’s some talk that’s changing a little bit about the fact that things will come to community boards, and it’s really important to us that those things are written into what will become the delegations later in the year."
Delegations are the responsibilities and decision-making powers conferred on the board by the council.
While Cromwell would benefit slightly from the spreading of cost across all of Central Otago, the concerns were about the function of the boards, she said.
Mr Cadogan said the new Cromwell Hall, which he referred to as the Central Otago events centre, "because we won’t be building another one", would run at a loss. That cost could either be put on each Cromwell ratepayer or spread across the district.
Many questions centred around endowment land, which was left to the Cromwell Borough to be used for the benefit of that community. Several people asked if the council planned to use it to fund work in other areas.
Mr Cadogan said as it stood that was not possible but said he could not guarantee what future councils might do.
He also pointed out that boards could not legally own assets, all land was owned by the council. However, the endowment stipulated the area, such as the Cromwell Borough, that should benefit from the land or its proceeds.
Looming costs for the three waters — drinking, waste and sewage — were going to affect every council in the country and many millions had to be found to pay for the legislated upgrades.
Maniototo had the largest area of endowment land in Central Otago which was running as a working farm. Vincent ward had more ratepayers than Cromwell did and, because of the recent representation review, from the next election Cromwell and Vincent wards would have the same number of councillors around the table, with Vincent reducing to four members.
In the past two weeks Mr Cadogan had addressed about a dozen Maniototo residents in Ranfurly, about 50 Teviot Valley residents in Roxburgh and just eight Vincent ward residents in Alexandra last week, when deputy chairman Jayden Cromb said the board was in favour of districtisation.
Three options will be presented to the council in September — having all property, parks, cemeteries, pools and museums managed across the entire region; making changes but having an adjusted rating for Teviot Valley to offset charges for the locally owned pool; or making no changes.
A show of hands at both the Roxburgh and Ranfurly meetings showed preference for options two and three, while there were equal levels of support for all options in Alexandra.
It was reiterated that submissions had to be made either online or at a council service centre by August 31 for consideration.
There would be an online meeting for the entire district on August 27. The final decision will be made at the council meeting on September 25.
