Local Government NZ – Story Two

We knew it cost a fair bit of Ratepayer income for the teams of staff at each Council in NZ to attend the LGNZ annual conference. This is on top of the Annual Fee Ratepayers are paying.

This is a link to the page on the LGNZ website promoting this year’s event. It’s quite a big affair.

https://www.lgnzconference.co.nz/

Take a look at the topics for discussion and all the sponsors – some who do work for the Ratepayer’s through our Councils. And some who do work for Taxpayers through the Government.

One of our supporters has a brother who has been digging in to the LGNZ conference and what it costs the people of Horowhenua (Palmerston North and the surrounding regions around the central North Island).

He highlights how the attendance costs grow – and also highlights how many people are working for councils for a small level of population in the area.

We’ve attached part of his letter for a read.

Not attached - in a summary - this writer mentions:

• The Wellington City Council Wages bill has gone up 40% despite having fewer numbers of staff.
• The Southland District Council Mayor questions why their area needs 4 Head Offices, with 4 CEO’s, doing 4 Long Term Plans and 4 District plans.
• And, Palmerston North has 200 staff and are investigating how to fit them all into the one location. The writer was not sure if this is just the admin staff for the region.

We haven’t had a chance to look into the actual numbers, and who is attending the LGNZ Conference for the NPDC and Taranaki Regional Council, but we can see how the costs to get there are similar from New Plymouth, and the messaging from LGNZ is the same to everyone attending.

The messaging at the Conference is not about cutting costs for things not needed, or reducing duplications of activities, which would reduce the amount of rates to be paid.

We think if a body is going to be paid $90k each year by the Ratepayers of New Plymouth it should have this type of focus.