Districtisation polarises meetings.
(information on Districtisation from the internet [to help with understanding])
Central Otago Mayor Tim Cadogan faced an uphill battle in Cromwell on Monday night (19th August), as he pitched a restructure of the district’s rating system.
In July, Central Otago district councillors agreed to consult the public on the districtisation of council services.
At a district level, 82% of services are rated — but under the proposed changes, all services, except community grants, would be rated.
Earlier this year, members of the Cromwell Community Board said they were blindsided by the proposal and felt the council was setting itself up to have a "land grab" of the board’s assets.
In a publicly released submission to council, the board said it was concerned about the speed the changes were being implemented.
The proposed restructure would introduce "sweeping changes to the way community boards function and interact with council", it said.
The submission outlined concerns the proposed changes would weaken the community board’s voice and input to council and the speed at which the decision was being made.
"The Cromwell Community Board is not worried about whether or not they hold the purse strings for some of the things that might happen.
"But we are worried about whether or not we really have a say in the things that are happening in Cromwell."
She said it is important to identify what is going to come to community boards and what will be written into its delegations next year.
Delegations are the responsibilities and decision-making powers conferred on the board by the council.
While Cromwell would benefit slightly from the spreading of cost across all of Central Otago, the concerns were about the function of the boards, she said.
Many questions centred around endowment land, which was left to the Cromwell Borough to be used for the benefit of that community.
Mr Cadogan pointed out that boards could not legally own assets, all land was owned by the council.
However, the endowment stipulated the area, such as the Cromwell Borough, that should benefit from the land or its proceeds.
Three options will be presented to the council in September — these include 1. having all property, parks, cemeteries, pools and museums managed across the entire region; 2. making changes but having an adjusted rating for Teviot Valley to offset charges for the locally owned pool; 3. or making no changes.
A show of hands at both the Roxburgh and Ranfurly meetings showed preference for options two and three, while there were equal levels of support for all options in Alexandra.
Those at the Cromwell meeting said they felt too uncomfortable to have a show of hands.
Submissions have to made either online or at a council service centre by August 31 for consideration, and the final decision will be made at the CODC council meeting on September 25.
