Viewpoint – Keeping it real

As a local board member, I am mindful of making sure public messages are not misleading. In a world where for one reason or another public don’t read past the click bait title, I cringe at public statements I see that are made for political gain, some not even related to decisions or issues under our control.

I was concerned to see our latest budget announcement being portrayed as a huge win of $35 million. It resulted in getting people’s hopes up that finally we’d get a community pool, bigger library, or address urgent issues with wastewater or other infrastructure not under local board control.

So to keep it real, the $35 million in the latest Rodney Local Board annual budget includes approximately $8 million (operational) and $1 million (capital) as additional funds. This additional ‘fairer funding’ is to address inequities for local boards with parks, facilities and services across larger areas, who had less funds through previous budgets because of their proportionately lower share of the Auckland population. Rodney received one of the highest ‘fairer funding’ amounts, but as it addresses historical inequities across all of Rodney, it is in no way a lolly scramble to provide everyone’s wish list for their specific community.

As a board, we advocated heavily in support of this proposed ‘fairer funding’ model, and while thankfully the Governing Body (Mayor and councillors) has approved it for this budget, there is no guarantee it will continue. It is also restricted to mainly operational expenses to enhance what we deliver to communities using the assets we already have. I understand this consideration, as it safeguards boards from building new assets which would incur associated increased costs for ratepayers going forward.

Through this fairer funding, with the help of committed staff across council, we reviewed the budget consultation priorities and finalised budget allocations that better help us to look after the facilities we have (such as parks, halls, toilets and libraries), provide services and activities in effective and efficient ways, support volunteers, and to complete next stage planning for future capital projects. We also addressed deficits caused by cuts to regional or central government funding, such as the reduction of CCF grants (Community Coordinator Funds), which would have hit our volunteer environmental groups hard, or insufficient provision or maintenance of public rubbish bins, compliance monitoring, walking tracks, holiday parks and historic sites as other examples.

I want to thank council staff and community volunteers who make valuable contributions to our communities. There are so many doing great things that are often overlooked, including those serving on the board who quietly do a lot out of public view. Please look deeper than the surface public messages you get, especially leading to the elections. The quieter ones are likely busier.

It has been a privilege to have served you on the board, and to have worked with so many others with their hearts in the right places. We have a board who in the last few years has mostly collaborated well with each other, our councillor, staff and community. I hope that this continues, and the systemic changes I’ve helped make to improve transparency by opening our workshops to public, recording local board business meetings, fairer distribution of representation across Rodney, and a fairer spread of transport targeted rate spend in Warkworth, will serve you well going forward, with whoever your new Rodney Local Board will be from October.

Budget allocation detail:
https://infocouncil.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/Open/2025/06/20250618_RD_ATT_12330_EXCLUDED.PDF (Pages 41-123)

Budget overview:
https://infocouncil.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/Open/2025/06/20250618_RD_AGN_12330_AT.PDF (Pages 59-101)