A number of community members drew my attention to today’s article in the Cambridge News / Te Awamutu News about Waipā District Council’s decision to send eight representatives to Christchurch to collect an award at the Local Government New Zealand conference.
The Mayor, two councillors and our Chief Executive attended last week’s LGNZ conference in Christchurch, all budgeted from allocated professional development budgets. However, an additional six people attended to accept the Super Engaged Tū Hononga Award, for community engagement on Ahu Ake (Waipā Community Spatial Plan) on behalf of the district. To send a total of eight people (two councillors were already there, I have no issue with that) with various levels of involvement in this project, to the awards dinner, highlights an ongoing and growing misalignment, I suspect, between the vast majority of the community's expectations and what’s happened here. It also demonstrates a breakdown of communication.
At a time when we are urging staff to be cost-conscious, this kind of spending raises serious questions. With dinner tickets at $250 each, plus travel and accommodation costs, the optics are poor. Ratepayers expect prudent financial management, especially when the benefits of such a large delegation are unclear.
At the time Ahu Ake was initiated the Four Well-beings were at the core of every council's planning. This government has shifted its focus away from these. That shift puts the future of initiatives like Ahu Ake into question, both in terms of alignment and affordability. We simply cannot continue to spend at this level, particularly on consultancy ($1.5 million for Ahu Ake) and discretionary travel, without clearer justification and stronger outcomes.
We need to do better.
Ratepayers deserve transparency, accountability, and a clear demonstration that every dollar spent delivers value.