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A second attempt to reallocate funds from the Rodney Local Board transport targeted rate to fix rural roads damaged in recent storms has failed, for now at least.
Warkworth member Ivan Wagstaff, seconded by Michelle Carmichael, submitted a Notice of Motion to discuss pausing a three-year $2.5 million shuttle bus trial in the Warkworth area and using the money to provide high quality unsealed roads instead.
However, like a similar notice of motion by Geoff Upson last month (MM, Mar 13), the motion was turned down by the board’s local area manager Lesley Jenkins because it didn’t meet the statutory requirements of Auckland Council’s standing orders.
This failure and the whole issue of how board members could instigate change came under scrutiny at the Local Board’s latest monthly meeting on March 15.
Several members voiced frustration at the difficulty in bringing matters for discussion to board meeting agenda.
Carmichael said she didn’t believe the motion should have been stopped in the way it was.
“Due to recent storm issues, we need to rethink our priorities, and our communities probably think the same, and we need to find that out. Our communities are facing an ongoing risk of isolation,” she said.
“We’re asking to pause that on-demand bus service at the moment so that we can discuss if we need to reprioritise that money.
“There’s a lot of talk about what’s needed to stop a motion, but not much as to how to get it on the table so we can discuss it. It would be good to get support to help us with these motions so that we can enable a discussion that needs to be had in a democratic way.”
Jenkins said her hands were tied by the board’s decision making obligations under the Local Government Act.
“When you’re putting something forward, whether it’s Geoff’s notice of motion or Ivan’s, if you move and recommend something that is outside your powers, then it’s ultra vires, it has no effect,” she said.
“Notices of motion are a political tool, they’re a very blunt tool and the problem that is quite often the case is that they don’t fully address the decison-making obligations under the Local Government Act.”
She said that was why a workshop on the background of the transport targeted rate had been organised for Wednesday, March 22, just before Mahurangi Matters went to press.
Wagstaff said the process seemed to be back to front.
“Organising workshops and mobilising staff before we and the board have had the chance to agree on whether we even want to do the thing we’re proposing seems a waste,” he said. “We might not even agree to do the thing being put forward, so to get staff to waste their time having workshops seems like the wrong thing to do. The right thing to do, when our communities are in need, is to look at things before we decide to have workshops.”
Chair Brent Bailey said the board was supposed to be an effective team, and he thought individual members putting forward their own Notices of Motion suggested they were acting as a “committee of one”.
Carmichael said that was far from the case.
“No, it’s the whole democratic thing where we bring an idea forward, then we talk about it and then we vote on it, and so it’s from that point forward we need more information and then invest some money in looking at it in more detail,” she said.
Wagstaff said after the meeting that he was simply saying let’s have a look and see if the board could help communities.
“I’ve visited a lot of people over the last couple of months and they’re not getting good news,” he said.
“The simple message is we should all be looking at things we can do to help with the current situation.
“If it needs consultation, we can do that. But my premise was to give people fit-for-purpose roads and saying pause it [the bus trial] for a while, so we can do some good.
“If we were to give $800,000 a year for three years to a local contractor and have them proactively go out to these places and provide a better road surface and clear some of the drains, perhaps they could make better roads.”
Wagstaff added that there weren’t many opportunities as a Local Board member to make a big difference, but when there was an opportunity to respond to a community need, that should not be missed.
