Mayor to pitch rating restructure

Central Otago Mayor Tim Cadogan says people today came to the region in the same circumstances he...
Tim Cadogan
Central Otago’s mayor Tim Cadogan will face an uphill battle in Cromwell on Monday night, as he pitches a divisive restructure of the district’s rating system.

In July, Central Otago District councillors agreed to consult the public on the districtisation of council services.

At a district level 82% of services are rated — but under the proposed changes, all services, except community grants, would be rated for at a district level.

On Monday in Cromwell, Mr Cadogan and council staff will run a town hall-style meeting covering the reasons for the move to districtisation.

In similar meetings across the district, Mr Cadogan has said the proposal would ensure an ongoing, equitable level of service across the district.

"[To] better align council decision-making, priorities and funding by taking a whole of district view."

However, 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.

The board is worried its comparative "wealth" — some $300 million in endowment land assets and $20m in a reserve account — could mean it lost out.

In a publicly released submission to the council, the board said it was concerned about the speed at which changes were 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."

The board was concerned the proposed changes would weaken its voice and input to the council.

"The board is concerned with the speed that these decisions are being put through and the risk of unintended negative consequences and undoing those would be much more complex than getting it right in the first place."

Mr Cadogan has been speaking about the proposed restructure at town hall and community groups meetings across the region in the past two weeks.

He addressed about a dozen Maniototo residents in Ranfurly, about 50 Teviot Valley residents in Roxburgh and just eight Vincent ward residents in Alexandra on Wednesday night, where Vincent Community Board 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.

The final decision will be made by council in September.