Less Local Government;
More Local Governance
A New Way: The Community-led Council
David Hammond
Director of Hammond Robertson Ltd
M. +64 27 444 6368
www.hammondrobertson.co.nz
The place of
community
governance
Waratah
My message in a nutshell
To build a New Way of Community-led councils, local governments will:
1. Move beyond seeing community as a stakeholder, a series of problems to fix or
something needing to be ‘helped’ to the lead partner in the co-design of places
2. Acknowledge that community resilience, sustainability and leadership will be built
by community solutions, community leading the dialogue and council supporting
with its expertises
3. Move beyond good examples of partnership to a new Partnership Model Council
4. Base its relationship around 4 pillars: Enabling Community Leadership, Community
Boards at the centre, Community Plans and Community Charters
Pillar 1:
The right approach
to Community
Leadership
Cormac Russell
How the ABCD world
translates to the
council world
Resilient and sustainable communities
Weakest
Do to
Community
Do for
community
Do with
Community
Of / By
community
Peter Kenyon
Strongest
Taumarunui
"If Taumarunui wishes to expand, it should
look to its natural strengths rather than
invent new ones or hanker after past
glories.“ (Taumarunui resident)
Pillar 2: The Community Board
1. Local people appointed or elected to run local affairs in a geographic area or suburb
2. Scope of local affairs can be advisory but best leadership is developed when the local
government devolves decision-making over local choices
3. Key role is leading place-shaping and a key platform is the Community Plan which
captures all the areas local groups’ planning and projects and gives priority to them
4. Scope can mature into devolving of service delivery like on the Coromandel
5. The relationship with council is one of equals and formalised through a conversation to
develop a Community Board Charter
6. Outcomes must be improvement in place-shaping, community engagement, public
satisfaction in council and cost efficiencies
Coromandel Community Boards
TCDC Case Study found here:
https://www.youtube.c
om/watch?v=eLlqrrMCog
But can we risk it??
Coromandel Results
2016 Survey - Satisfaction in:
•
Council decision-making improved 15% since the 2012 change and is now 10% higher
than the national average
•
Council decisions themselves increased by 20%
•
Rates spend improved 17% (up to 83%)
•
Confidence in their council increased by 18%
•
Council reduced rates in two successive years (-6%)
•
Council had the lowest operating cost per property of any local authority in the region
•
$43M was removed from ten-year capital budgets without degrading assets or
reducing levels of service
•
Staff engagement post-restructure rose to higher levels than before restructure
Pillar 3:
The Community
Plan is the
Community's
Plan
Thames Community
Board, NZ
T.U.D.S.
Section
Description
Part 1: District / City
Vision, strategy, purpose and values
Part 2:
Community or Local
Board Governance
Purpose, Objectives
Values and norms
Meetings and protocol
Decision-making
Accountability
Communications
Conflict resolution
Part 3:
Board Roles
Role of the Chair, Role of Board
Board mix and skills
Appointments to other entities
Relationship to staff
Pillar 4:
The
Community
Charter is a Part 3:
conversation Management –
of equals Board Relationship
Role, reporting, consultation of staff
Performance management & KPIs
Accountability of staff & projects
Management limitations
Repeating my message in a nutshell
It is my view that in future, local government’s relationship to community will:
1. Move beyond seeing community as a stakeholder, a series of problems to fix or
something needing to be ‘helped’ to the lead partner in place-shaping
2. Acknowledge that community resilience, sustainability and leadership will be built by
community solutions, community leading the dialogue and council supporting with its
expertises
3. Need to move far, far beyond developing good partnership example projects to
transforming the council operations and governance itself into a Council Partnership
Model
4. Base its relationship around 4 pillars: Enabling Community Leadership, Community
Boards at the centre, Community Plans and Community Charters
Less Local Government;
More Local Governance
A New Way: The Community-led Council
Community Planning I Community Governance Structures I
New Models of Council Citizen Engagement
David Hammond
Director of Hammond Robertson Ltd
M. +64 27 444 6368
www.hammondrobertson.co.nz