All remaining council activities, with two exceptions, will be rated across all of Central Otago following a lengthy debate yesterday.
- SUBSCRIBER: Made-up word perhaps not a district asset
One was for the council to take over running all property, parks, cemeteries, pools and museums. Option two was similar but with a rating adjustment for the Teviot Valley ward as it does not have any council-owned pools, and option three was to make no changes.
At present, 82% of council services and activities are funded at a district level, such as roading, water and waste disposal.
The council proposed centralising remaining services and activities - parks, community facilities, pools and property - which were rated at a ward level.
The community boards in each of the four wards - Teviot Valley, Maniototo, Cromwell and Vincent - had the opportunity to make submissions to the council and there had been extensive consultation with the community.
Three councillors - Ian Cooney (Vincent ward), Cheryl Laws and Sarah Browne (both Cromwell ward) - voted against the motion to accept option two.
On Tuesday evening the council meeting opened to hear from submitters and then at the reconvened meeting yesterday they heard from three of the four community boards.
Mayor Tim Cadogan said Maniototo Community Board chairman Rob Hazlett had said the board was "fairly neutral" on the matter.
Council group manager business support Saskia Righarts’ report to the meeting said while option three was the preferred community option it did not recognise the future risk to the community as a whole in not having a district-wide funding approach.
The discussions began in January when the council’s chief executive, Peter Kelly, tabled a report suggesting changes to the delegations, or lack of accountability, of community boards.
Dr Righarts said the rationale behind the original suggestion was to move more strategic spending decisions to the council to ensure a district-wide funding model was more readily achieved. At present the council was predicted to reach its funding cap of debt-to-revenue ratio of 175% in the next financial year.
Objections to the proposal ranged from suggesting the council was trying to take Cromwell’s endowment land - despite that not being possible - to concerns that community voice and representation to the council would be lost.
