The Queenstown Lakes District Council has been hailed by the Public Service Association (PSA) as an example for Auckland to follow for its decision to bring its engineering services back in-house.
Two years after creating the council-controlled organisation (CCO) Lakes Engineering Ltd, the Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) was restructured in July 2009 and took all its engineering services, including roading, water and other infrastructure, back into the council's administration.
Prompted by the debate on how council services should be structured and managed under a new "super city" for Auckland, PSA national secretary Richard Wagstaff spoke out against the idea of having seven CCOs for Auckland, using Queenstown as an exemplar.
"The Government should heed the lessons learnt from the Queenstown experience, where the council found it was cheaper and more efficient for the council to control and run services rather than a CCO," Mr Wagstaff said.
When QLDC's intention was announced in January 2009, former chief executive Duncan Field said there had been "frustration" in the communication between council departments and Lakes Engineering. He expected the restructuring would save the council $3.3 million a year, which was later mentioned in the council's annual report.
QLDC general manager infrastructure services Mark Kunath said the move had been a success.
"We have seen huge benefits from bringing all the staff together in the same building. Being able to see each other and talk directly instead of waiting for phone calls and emails from colleagues has saved us a lot of time."
"The same goes for being able to catch up in a lunch room. Those five-minute discussions can save hours of work. It has been a fantastic result in terms of our internal communication and efficiency," Mr Kunath said.
He is confident he will achieve savings of about $3.3 million in a few years.
"So far we have reached our aim of a 4.5% reduction in the cost of out capital programme. The use of consultants has also been drastically reduced, with savings of close to $800,000 this year. As more contracts expire, a further $1.77 million will be saved next year," he said.
While he was happy with the initial results of the QLDC's restructuring, Mr Kunath suggested it might be difficult to compare Queenstown's situation with the current debate about a future Auckland city council. Mr Wagstaff acknowledged this issue.
"Yes, I agree we are talking about a different scale when we compare Auckland to Queenstown. But the principles of local government are the same. In this debate, some people have been too quick to point out that councils cannot successfully manage their infrastructure. Queenstown looks like a proof of the opposite."
