Russell Keys - Deputy Mayor
I’m still deciding if the pros outweigh the cons – and if the proposed model can be made better to address the potential downsides and risks.
What is your position on the draft proposal and, importantly, why?
I’m still deciding if the pros outweigh the cons – and if the proposed model can be made better to address the potential downsides and risks.
I believe there will be long term benefits of an amalgamation, including economies of scale, building on our established shared services approach and having one voice representing Wairarapa interests will mean we will be able to more effectively influence regional and national policies. At the moment Carterton on our own has limited influence because we’re so small.
What is a specific issue (a problem or opportunity) that you believe amalgamation will address and how will it address it?
Amalgamation will enable us to deliver our core services and infrastructure in a better way with fewer risks. We’ll have a much larger pool of expertise to support the service delivery right across the Wairarapa. At the moment we have relatively small teams running our infrastructure services and they are very segmented, despite some shared services.
There will also be the opportunity to bring service delivery in-house across the whole Wairarapa, like we have currently in Carterton. As well as giving us more scale it will give us more resources to respond to unforeseen events, like recent rain event.
What tangible benefits could amalgamation bring for ratepayers and how will amalgamation achieve them?
We will have consistent front-line services, rules and policies which will make it much easier for people to do business in Wairarapa. We will have aligned policies on things like arts, culture and heritage which will make it much easier for Council partners in those areas to deal with us and to receive funding and other support.
For Carterton District Council I believe being part of a bigger Council entity will address a number of risks we have inside our business. I know and are very proud that we run our core services really well and we’ve got an outstanding reputation for being responsive and easy to deal with. But we are really small and we don’t have a lot of depth of expertise in the organisation. We are heavily reliant on a few key people, a number of whom have been with us for a long time and are reaching retirement. With many jobs done by one or even half a person people it’s very hard to provide for succession in these roles.
What are the risks of amalgamation, and if any, how will they be mitigated?
One of the risks is the transition costs blowing out. The main areas of risks are the IT costs. This can be mitigated by the Transition Board doing its job well (so we’ll need to have the right people on the Board) and appointing a quality Interim CE.
Another risk is the loss of representation in the rural parts of the Wairarapa, and the ability rural people will have to influence Council decisions. This can be mitigated by maybe having community boards in the rural areas as well as the urban areas (will need to be well resourced and be given delegations to make decisions) or having a strong Rural Committee, with the right people appointed and with resources and support from the organisation.
