Latest issue

by John Glover, Mayor, QLDC

The election last October delivered a number of ‘change’ candidates – myself included. So a fair question to ask is “what has changed?” six months on.

My priority has been fostering inclusivity around the council table – no a and b team, sharing workloads, responsibilities and opportunities. Allowing councillors space to lead agendas on their committees, and supporting our governance role of oversight and organisational accountability.

We agreed on a new committee structure to better achieve this and have recruited three exceptional individuals to sit on our Risk & Assurance committee. Finance is a stand alone committee and we have a new Organisational Excellence committee with governance of a fair chunk of the organisations ‘what we do and how we do it’.

We are in the advanced stages of building a board of directors for the new council-owned company that will deal with water and wastewater in the district and are ready to shortlist candidates to fill QLDC’s CE position on a permanant basis.

I believe that in order to deliver meaningful change we need the right people in the right places and a team of councillors working towards better outcomes for our community. No winners, no losers. Better decision making. And that takes time.

A measure will be how well we navigate some imminent decisions that are potentailly very divisive. Our response to some significant proposed rates rises. Do we accept a regional deal agreement that might be more hui than doi. Our approach to governments’ stick wielding ‘hurry up’ to mix and merge with other district councils as regional councils are abolished.

As councillors we are moving into the ‘how to make meaningiful and lasting change’ discussion. A move away from council BAU.

Restoring community trust is a key outcome we are striving for. Being open, being out there, being honest. It will take time to shift the dial here. We hear the cynicism. We took time to ask community groups and stakeholders what they are looking for in our next CE. We are trying to be more out there in the media. We are using councillors as advocates to government on your behalf.

Our ongoing challenge is how on earth do we ensure that infrastructure and services keep pace with our supercharged rate of residential growth? It takes time, money and people to ensure pipes and drains go to the right places at the right time but when fast track planning potentially delivers the equivalent of the population of Wānaka into the Whakatipu basin that becomes incrimentally harder.

The district builds five times more housing per head of population than any other large council in the country. This can only end well if government funds and delivers on its functions – state highways that aren’t gridlocked, schools that aren’t bursting at the seams and access to health that meets our needs. We welcome the investment in health recently announced by Minister Brown and look forward to constructive and collaborative discussions with other crown agencies that lead to wider investment in the district.

Good relationships around the council table, with our communities, with mana whenua, with government.

These foundational steps don’t make for sexy, newsworthy, clickbait headlines but without them we won’t make the meaningful change that we know is needed.