Puketapapa LB Candidate Julie Fairey
1. Councillors should focus on regional issues, while Local Board members have a vital role to play at the local level; identifying issues, coming up with ways to address them, and advocating for those to be pursued, whether that be through the council family (in which case sometimes it is a matter of securing resources and making decisions) or other agencies (when it will be more of a public advocacy role). There is also the chance to have input into issues that cross Board boundaries, and to build the capacity of your own community in terms of infrastructure; social, physical, economic and environmental.
2. Mostly. In the three years I have been on the Board to date I have had to work in another job two days a week to have enough income for my family, and I also have childcare responsibilities on 3 days a fortnight. I am not as available on those days as I am the rest of the week.
3.If re-elected I will continue to be available by email, phone (mobile, text and landline), twitter, Facebook, post to me via Council or at home. I am also happy to set up a meeting or visit someone at a place that works for them. I have found that sometimes I get approached at the supermarket, at school pick up or on the bus, and that’s ok usually too.
4. As much as practicable. I have two young children so late night availability is limited by phone or in person, but I realise that a lot of the great things (and the not so great) that happen in my community don’t happen 9 to 5 M to F and it’s important to be available outside those times. Currently I usually end up attending evening events or meetings one or two nights a week and on the weekends as well
5. Mainly by phone, email or in person for out of hours. I am also often online in the evenings, so Twitter or Facebook there too. I have public pages for both.
6. I would really like to do this full-time. If personal finances allow then I would do so. In the last three years I’ve generally done at least 28 hours most weeks, with a little bit of time off in January.
7. If I have to remain part time then I propose to continue to do at least 28 hours most weeks.
8.I have become very familiar with Council’s budget and account sheets over the last three years! Prior to that I have also served on other bodies where scrutiny of accounts has been part of my work. I have also at various times run the household accounts too.
9. Ideally I would like to see us lower the debt level over time, although I am not overly worried about the current level. I have watched how the very quick amalgamation process has made a lot of things more expensive than they needed to be, and I wish we had been able to take more time and thus create a better outcome, fiscally and democratically.
10. Projection for 2014/15 is around $7.3B according to the 2013 pre-election report.
11. My understanding is that a lot of the current debt and the debt to be entered into in the near future is from legacy projects. I am ok with where we are at, as the increased debt is funding a much larger increase in assets. There is a clear plan, with sound reasoning, and it has been endorsed by democratically elected representatives. We are going through a generational shift, from some legacy councils who under-invested and under-funded some communities, to a more equitable distribution over time and place, and debt is a tool to get us through that transition.
12. My reading of the LTP is that net borrowings in 2018 will be a bit under $6.5B
13. As a Local Board member the control you can exert over CCOs is very limited. However there is an advocacy role to Governing Body, in particular about Statements of Intent and the appointment of directors, which I would like to see Local Boards play a much more active role in (particularly by Local Boards cooperating together where there is agreement). There are also opportunities to work with the local community to influence CCO behaviour and decision-making as well, including through the media. I have used these in the past and had some success, and I will do so in future. Currently I am supporting a public postcard campaign to get Watercare to remove a water reservoir off a mountain (Big King) which is considered an eyesore and symbolic of the neglect of this cone. You can find out more about the “Restore Big King” campaign at http://www.roskillcv.org.nz.
14. I will continue to push for as many CCO meetings as possible to be in public, for the information for those meetings to be published and accessible, and I would like to also encourage more media coverage and scrutiny.
15.The key problems in Puketapapa generally come back to issues of fairness and giving our community a voice. Roskill got a poor deal in the Auckland City days, as evidenced by the current Local Board budgets which are largely based still on legacy arrangements. For every dollar spent on average in another Board area Puketapapa gets about 74c. The lack of equity and the former weakness of the community’s voice in Roskill are related! I’ve been actively advocating for a better deal for Roskill in terms of council funding and resources, and also taking practical steps to encourage and nurture the voices of Roskill’s people in council processes, such as helping out the local fledgling residents’ association, and working to build the capacity of community groups particularly around securing funding. Because of unfairness over decades we have particular issues around infrastructure, poverty, housing, transport, employment and social disconnection.
16. If re-elected I’d like to continue to work on giving Roskill a strong voice in Auckland, and further afield. We have a lack of community cohesion and identity here, and I think we could undertake an exciting community process to work on that which would be a great way to bring people together, celebrate what’s good and strengthen our collective voice and abilities to address what’s not so good. Specifically I would like to do some intensive work on local job creation and economic development, particularly in the area of social enterprise. I’d also like to build on some of the community development initiatives I’ve started to strengthen local groups, such as Funding Champions and the Puketapapa Garden Web. I would like to advocate within the council family for a living wage, for appointment practices that are fairer to those who are often marginalised, and for policies that enable community members and groups rather than put up barriers. I’ve started some of that work already in my advocacy through the Thriving Communities policy to embed community development approaches across Council. There’s a lot more I would like to work on, and a lot more I’d like to do, and there’s more information of that variety at http://www.roskillcv.org.nz.
Henderson-Massey LB Candidate John Riddell
1. Local Board – To focus on the local community and make decisions on local issues, activities and facilities. Should be able to advocate more.
Councillor – will focus on the big picture and on region-wide strategic decisions – he/she therefore is there to question the Mayor’s vision for the City.
2. Yes
3. Simple by phone and email and telephone messages and in person by appointment – I might not get back immediately however I do ring back
4.Yes –
5. Simple by phone and email and telephone messages and in person by appointment – I might not get back immediately however I do ring back
As above – by arranging face to face messages and being active in the community – I have been and still am accessible
6.Being a Councillor and a Local Board Chair, yes should be full time, they earn $70000 per annum. The local board member no, however they receive the salary of what for some people is a full time role (40000). I believe Community Board Chairs under the old system worked harder and were committed. Frankly some people can put in 10 hours which would equal 20 hours, others 20 hours would equal 5 hours. The job involves commitment and service to all residents and ratepayers – you are a servant of the people when you become an elected member –
7. I would spend around 20 hours per week or more on the job – more if I believe that is necessary
8. Yes – look up the Massey Birdwood Settlers Association on the Charities Commission and you can see my handiwork. I have operated my own business and am in management and have also been on Council and learnt the art of reading the accounts of a Council – My mentors Jenny Price (accountant) and Brian Lay (CA), President of the Massey Birdwood Settlers Ass.
9. I would not like to see the debt increase – some debt will always be necessary – especially if we invest in roads and infrastructure which is intergenerational as you cannot afford to costs on the current ratepayer when future ratepayers will receive much of the benefit.
10. Around $5.5 billion
11. No
12. Around 11.6 billion
13. How the system is set up would mean that a local board does not have much say – as Councillors can be members of CCO’s, Local Board members could be as well. A change in legislation maybe necessary to make CCOs more accountable. Local Boards should be given the advocacy role that the Community Boards also had. At present it is very hard for the Local Board to be critical of the Council when they are supposedly on a par. Having said that CCOs are business units of the Council and many elected members would be better with their hands off them, except to ensure that they are being accountable to the public
14. They could be made more accountable by using the only thing available to Councils which is to ask by way of an instruction to the CEO of Council – by passing a resolution. Individually a Councillor does not have any power except at a council meeting. Resolutions are powerful.
15. A lot – one example Te Atatu South has a few namely it does not have a heart (no hub/library). Te Atatu South Rd is being redesigned and the benefits to the residents I do not believe will eventuate. The Local Board should be jumping up and down in the air more, but are probably constrained because of codes of conduct, and not having the advocacy role like the community boards did. I bet they do not have a resolution on their books saying they are against what is happening – which they could do. In my time on the Massey Community and when I was on Council for that matter, resolutions were passed saying how we felt – inorganic rubbish collections and filling the Huruhuru waterhole. As well we did advocate. The Board also got the traffic engineers going back and reconsulting over some roading projects which we can do.
16. I am not afraid to have a resolution put to the vote and defeated, or to vote against certain action, or if I feel necessary raise an issue publically even if it means breaching codes of conduct. Done it before! I will never be critical of individuals however.
Rodney (Kumeu) LB Candidate Vivien Dostine
1. Being of service to the community; as a representative of ratepayers and residents, and by offering my experience and expertise.
2. Yes
3. Via phone or email, or by personal appointment \ meetings\ workshops \ forums \
4. Yes, I actually consider this to be very important as one of the barriers to democracy is often that Council meetings, forums and workshops are held during business hours only.
5. As per business hours, I will try to balance my availability as required.
6. No
7. I expect to average between 2-3 days per week. Actual effort will be dependent upon the ebb and flow of Board business, such as annual financial reporting\budgets, bylaw reviews and other requirements. As a first time board candidate I also expect to have to put in some extra effort at the beginning to take up training in specific skills required , such as resource management and consenting.
8 .I have a reasonable knowledge of Accounting, as I studied Accounting and Economics at College. In addition my last 20 years of IT
9. No, Most Councils in New Zealand (with the exception of the South) have taken on far too much debt in relation to their ability to raise funds,
10. Auckland’s net debt is around $6 billion, with a projection to approx 7.3 billion over the next year.
11. Not really, Aucklands interest costs to operating revenue ratio is too high by international standards (and predicted to rise). Current restrictions for raising funds are being restricted by Central govt and this worries me.
12. I am unsure what the 2018 debt projection is because there appears to be a conflict in the financial information in the LTP and the pre-election report. The pre-election report predicts 2017 @ 8,746
13. As I am only standing for a Local Board I can only take an advocacy position. However, I would like to see far more transparency from the CCOs, and in particular I would like to see them far more accessible to the public. I see no reason why CCOs should not have public forums in the same way that Boards, and Council do. At the moment the Local Boards have an Auckland Transport Liaison officer, but this assumes that people only want to talk to AT about ‘local’ issues. It is impossible to publicly discuss regional transport issues, or regional issues with the way that AT is behaving\operating.
14. Advocacy to both the Council Transport Committee and to the Board and Executive of AT
15. As Rodney is the largest physical area in Auckland, there are a wide range of issues that affect the different communities within Rodney. However, economic development of the area, and urbanisation are two general issues that drive many of the sub-issues. For instance, rate levels, debt levels, employment etc are related to the economic strength of the region, but so are more mundane matters such as road safety and improvements because they relate to available funds (rates and income).
16. The Local Board is somewhat restricted by both the central govt directives on the role of local govt, and the roles of the CCOs (in the case of economic development ATEED), however I believe that the Local Boards can play key roles in supporting and promoting local initiatives.
· I would like to start by creating effective working networks across the region to help businesses and communities access resources and work together.
· Rodney can take up the Otorohanga model of education\job creation in many communities where employment is a key issue.
· Researching and trialling more cost effective new technologies rather than assuming that the same old solutions will be used for the same old problems e.g. Northland is trialling polymer soil\gravel stabilisation rather than insisting on sealing all gravel roads (which not cost effective in many rural areas)
· The local board can put more resources into promoting the area as a whole to increase visitor stays
· We can take the lead in promoting healthy environments, through anti-littering campaigns, and working with other agencies to increase water quality etc
· Increased engagement and responsiveness to the community by creating more ways for ratepayers to provide feedback to Council i.e. more than public submissions, and we must reply\respond to those people who have taken the time to speak at public forums.
Accountability in Auckland Council 