Concern at lack of detail in council annual plan

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 10, Issue 442, 30 June 1992, Page 3

Concern at lack of detail in council annual plan

The Ruapehu District Council' s budget, or Annual Plan, is short on detail. That was the view of Waimarino Community Board member Winston Oliver who presented a submission to the council on its budget last Friday. The council received 25 public submissions to its Draft Annual Plan. Mr Oliver said he was concerned at the lack of detailed budget information in the plan. He said expenses on all activities should be more detailed to show staff, material, services, vehicle and internal costs. Parks and community facility budgets should be broken down into individual facilities and not lumped together. He said the schedule of capital works should show how the items are going to be funded, ie rates, special funds, loans etc. "I would like our annual plan to be brought up to the standard of the Regional Council annual plan," Mr Oliver told the .council. "Quite frankly I couldn't get a great deal out of it (RDC's plan)" He said the regional council's annual plan was very clear on where money was being spent and where it was coming from. Later in the meeting councillor Doug Bennett also expressed concern that there was a lack of detail. "We (councillors) seem to be left to work on the peripheral issues. There is $2 million allocated to administration costs and we have very little knowledge on where the money is spent." "We're voting on that without any idea what its really being spent on. At this stage things are still pretty tight and things like air conditioning for offices aren't justified." Chief executive Houston said he was given a brief for council management and he had succeeded in meeting that.

"You decided we should work for a overall rate reduction of five per cent. I believe I have fulfilled that goal." "Waimarino haven't had any reduction," said Cr Bennett. Finance Director Chris Ryan defended the plan, saying it was prepared in accordance with the recommendations of the New Zealand Society of Local Govemment Managers and endorsed by the Audit Office. He said the plan should emphasise the cost of the service or output provided, not the type of cost involved. He said there was a difference in focus for the district and regional councils. "We have to report on a much wider range of activities." Mr Houston said as the council develops the plan will include more detail. He said there were two other types of plan on the drawing board - a plan of long term council strategy and one for specific activities. Mr Houston said if the annual plan included the type of information Mr Oliver was talking about it would be several hundred pages long. Cross subsidies Mr Oliver was also concerned that there was significant cross-subsidisation occurring. He said he believed the Waimarino rural ratepayers were paying 20 per cent of the general rate total, but he didn't believe they were getting 20 per cent spent on them. He said the rural ratepayer was heavily subsidising kerb and channel and other unsubsidised works in urban areas. "The plan . should clearly show if my beliefs are correct." He said the council's rating policy would be more acceptable if the effects of the policy were shown in the plan and if due consideration could be given to spending of

rates where they are raised. Mr Ryan said the plan made a very clear statement on the council's rating policy. He said urban services are funded by separate uniform annual charges and that there were two separate rates to partially fund the cost of the two separate roading networks. "On the basis of the council policy set out in the Draft Annual Plan it can be clearly shown that cross subsidisation is not occurring," said Mr Ryan. Later in the meeting councillor Doug Bennett also expressed concern at the lack of detail in the plan. Tendering Waimarino board member John Compton also made submission to the plan, saying more council work should be contracted out. He said all of the parks and reserves and toilet maintenance work not already tendered, should be tendered. | Technical services director Bruce Dobson said "it is believed that it is best to move to competitive tendering step by step." He said Technical Services and the Operations Business Units that way have the opportunity to develop their skills at competitive tendering and the contracts which are drawn up for this work are tested in an in-house environment before being let for open tender. The council heard that another district - Wairarapa - had gone for full tendering in one step. "In 'Yes Minister' terms that action could be described as 'courageous'," said Mr Houston. He said there were grave doubts about the possible success or failure of their system.