You’ve heard the joke: How many ‘whomevers’ does it take to change a lightbulb?
Most of Hawke’s Bay’s 56 elected mayors and councillors and some key staff recently held their first post-election meet & greet and quasi-workshop.
I’m not sure the Comms staffer who suggested this photo should get a promotion for this stark reminder of our local governance overload!
Do we really need this many chiefs to run our province?
My wager is that a dozen or so of the best officials in this photo would serve us as well or better than the rest combined. And save us both time and money.
Setting aside your parochial loyalties, which 15 would you pick for your all-Hawke’s Bay political rugby team? Personally, I’d settle for a netball 7.
Seriously, we face major change – soon to be mandated by Coalition Government legislation – in how we will be governed locally.
The clock is ticking on …
HB Regional Recovery Agency
HB Regional Economic Development Agency
HB Tourism
HB Regional Council
While new entities are being born …
Water Services Council-Controlled Organisation (WSCCO)
Heretaunga Water Storage Limited
Time to start thinking about the end game.
Way too many! I’ve always said that HB should have a united council – maybe with Wairoa on stand-alone or associated with Gisborne – but certainly we are very much over-governed in HB – and a United Council should have maybe 10 members including a mayor – that’s (assuming Wairoa is alone) 3 from each area (Hastings, Napier, CHB ) plus a separately voted mayor. Employ good staff and the region should operate efficiently (or as efficiently as local bureaucracy can)