With touches of drama.
The die was cast this week as the Hastings District, CHB District and Napier City Councils formally adopted the foundation instruments that will create a regional water services organization to provide drinking water, wastewater and stormwater services to the bulk of Hawke’s Bay.
CHBDC endorsed the new framework unanimously. At HDC, only Councillors Simon Nixon and Steve Gibson opposed; they added drama by specifically opposing Māori representation on the governance body.
Only Wairoa District Council has declined to join.
Last to the party was NCC, whose final deliberations provided some minor drama as Mayor Richard McGrath and three other councillors (Greg Mawson, Te Kira Lawrence and Craig Morley) opposed the move, resulting in an 8-4 vote to adopt.
Mayor McGrath read from prepared notes in stating his opposition, saying that whereas water was Napier’s “number one priority”, Napier was “now relying on others to prioritise our needs”. He said the claimed savings from consolidation sat within “the margin of error”, noting how past estimates for a velodrome and aquarium had erred.
He challenged the effectiveness of regional approaches in several other areas – busses, civil defense, policing (“with Napier having no cells”), health services. “All have failed,” he claimed, “Why should the community expect this to be any different?”
All pretty much summed with: “This is the start of amalgamation by stealth, where we become a minority … Water needs to be our number one priority, not someone else’s.”
[Because we are often asked about surprise Mayor McGrath and how he thinks, here is an AI-produced transcript of his taped remarks. Or you can always view the Council video recording.]
NCC went on to appoint two of its three representatives (Councillors Graeme Taylor and Keith Price, with a Māori representative yet to be named in consultation with Mana Ahuriri) on the Shareholder Representative Forum. This body will provide political accountability for the new regional organisation, which will be owned 45% each by HDC and NCC, and 10% by CHBDC.
All three councils have now appointed members to the Shareholder Representative Forum. Joining the NCC appointees are HDC reps Mayor Wendy Schollum, Deputy Mayor Michael Fowler and Mike Paku (Hastings District Council representative) and CHBDC reps Mayor Will Foley, Councillor Brent Muggeridge and Councillor Amiria Nepe-Apatu.
The governance oversight to be provided by the Shareholder Representative Forum includes:
- Monitoring the performance of the HBWSCCO
- Providing input into the Water Services Strategy and annual budget
- Preparing the Statement of Expectations
- Appointing and reviewing the performance of the Board
- Providing coordinated feedback and recommendations to shareholders
Obviously a heap of inter-council politics will be played out in the above!
The three councils have now approved a $14.2 million budget (plus 3.35 contingency allowance) to pay for the detailed transition planning and implementation work for the new regional water agency, officially the HB Water Services Council Controlled Organisation (HBWSCCO) which will begin operation on 1 July 2027.
Amalgamation by stealth – great! Any chance of amalgamation is worth it – such a small population with so many councils and councillors is ridiculous
What a dysfunctional divided region we live in. HDC have their own issues over unelected Maori representation to Three Waters which was voted out at the 2023 General Election.
NCC can’t agree to their preferred model to Three Waters
and their own racial and political issues.
We are as bad as the Far North D C and their issues around unelected appointments and racial co-governance.
Amalgamation must occur asap to help unit the region and make significant savings.
Perhaps a Crown Observer needs to be involved to calm the nonsense being reported.
We should be a proud united region with equal rights to all residents.
Amalgamation actually worked very well in Auckland, where it was forced by a National government, on the assumption that John Banks would become Mayor. Amalgamation worked so well well because Len Brown won. He was plugged into the concerns of the wider region.
personally i’d be happy to support McGrath & co on keeping NCC separate because Napier has enormous problems with its water (supply & waste & storm – all 3!) which the rest of us are now going to have to help pay for. but instead of rubbing his hands with glee McGrath is busy scoring political points and, on the evidence, likely to do what he/they can to make the new body dysfunctional. oh, excellent.