NZ Local Government 1805 by Contrafed Publishing

NZ LOCAL GOVERNMENT MAGAZINE VOL 55 • MAY 2018 • $8.95

CITYCARE

Embedded in the communities we serve

www.citycare.co.nz

T+T and Lutra team up for safe drinking water Tonkin + Taylor and Lutra have joined forces to offer a new end-to-end solution for water suppliers that will provide a robust and efficient risk management system for groundwater and surface water supplies. This offering is based on the leading-edge work that both organisations have performed for Hastings District Council in response to the Havelock North incident. Tonkin + Taylor – Are pioneers of integrated catchment risk management as well as having an unparalleled track record in new source developments. T+T also provide a wide range of engineering, environmental and project management services from source to tap. Lutra – Are specialist water process engineers who provide process optioneering, process design, process optimisation and commissioning services. Lutra also provide state of the art operator training systems and through their Infrastructure Data on-line compliance reporting system can support end-to-end management of water supply risk.

Our leaders Tony Cussins - Technical Director, Hydrogeology Tony is an expert in contaminant hydrogeology and human health and environmental risk assessment. This role requires him to work closely alongside clients to ensure they are empowered to make optimal decisions on sensitive, technically complex projects. Email: tcussins@tonkintaylor.co.nz Tel: +64 27 705 1368 Dr Jason Colton - Principal Process Engineer Jason is an expert in water treatment design, commissioning, operation and optimisation. He has a track record of maximising the use of existing assets and providing cost effective solutions for clients. Email: Jason.colton@lutra.com Tel: +64 27 607 0302

Summary of experience: • T+T has undertaken numerous source risk assessments, led HDC’s investigations into the source of Campylobacter contamination and contributed to investigations into Lower Hutt’s Waiwhetu Aquifer contamination • Lutra provides water treatment and data management services to HDC and many other clients • The combined skills of this team cover every aspect of security of groundwater supplies, including strategies for catchment management and the option of treatment and disinfection as a barrier • We are happy to discuss implications for Councillors, Councils’ executive leadership teams, asset and water supply managers

IN THIS ISSUE NZ LOCAL GOVERNMENT MAGAZINE

IN THIS ISSUE

16 REGULARS

4 Editor’s Letter 6 In Brief 11 Products & Services 14 Events 47 LGNZ

COLUMNISTS 44 Sarah Macky: On Legal Issues 45 Peter Silcock: From Civil Contractors New Zealand 46 Dave Cull: From LGNZ

REPORTS

32 42

16 L ANDSCAPES OF MISERY From Louisiana slave huts to landscapes of the New Zealand Land Wars: how should communities square up to their past? 20 IOBY: IN OUR BACK YARDS US crowdfunding initiative IOBY is the antithesis of NIMBYism, looking for the positive in communities one tiny project at a time 24 W HO PAYS FOR WASTE? Marlborough District Council is looking at opportunities for waste and cost reduction through product stewardship

28 S OLGM GALA DINNER Celebrating innovation and excellence in local government management at SOLGM’S recent Gala Dinner 32 T HE BEST AND WORST OF DAYS At the New Zealand heats of the Australasian Management Challenge 36 M ARINER RISE A small piece of open land on Whangaparaoa Peninsula serves the very different needs of a community, ecologists and council’s stormwater management responsibilities 38 N ATIONAL PERFORMANCE REVIEW Water New Zealand’s benchmarking tool shows big differences in councils’ approaches to water

SPECIAL FEATURES SMART SOLUTIONS: 40 Stormwater management 42 Parks & recreation management

ON THE COVER: CITYCARE: Embedded in the communities we serve. MAY 2018 LOCAL GOVERNMENT MAGAZINE

EDITOR’S LETTER NZ LOCAL GOVERNMENT MAGAZINE

PUBLISHER Contrafed Publishing Co. Ltd, Suite 2.1, 93 Dominion Rd, Mount Eden, Auckland 1024 PO Box 112 357, Penrose, Auckland 1642 Phone: 09 636 5715, www.localgovernmentmag.co.nz

Bottle the caring What is it with local government? I was in a meeting with a consultant recently who was boiling with pent-up frustration about the lack of energy and initiative in the sector. I get that consultants work at the bleeding edge. They’re sometimes called in to ‘fix’ – and hopefully transform – difficult situations at what is often short notice. So, is theirs just a lopsided view? A consequence of their role? I don’t think so. I think they get to mop up the messes. They see the dirty laundry that others don’t. Is local government so bound up with protocols and processes that it can’t find a way to work more meaningfully and compassionately either within its own ranks or with those beyond its borders: its communities? Is it about systems and legislation? Or, more worryingly, is it a lack of caring at an individual level – the result of the combined inertia of many individuals? On the flip side, why can’t we bottle some of the energy and verve that I experienced at the New Zealand heats of the Australasian Management Challenge recently? This wasn’t a one-off. I’d been to the challenge a few years earlier and seen the same thing. Different people: same dynamic. A room – in that case, a building – full of people who wanted to make a difference, go the extra mile and CARE. I’m not saying that doesn’t happen right now. It does. But it’s in isolated pockets across the country rather than universally across the board. Only when those isolated centres of caring join

CONTRAFED

up and overwhelm the ‘same-old, same-old’ so-so attitudes will local government get real traction. And then what a force it could be. I’ve written about my time at the Management Challenge in a story starting on page 32 of this issue. In many ways, it’s a celebration of some of the good stuff happening in our midst and I make no apologies for it being over-the-top in places. Because if we truly want a vibrant local government sector, we need to be both more critical, and more proud, of what local authorities do. If I could presume to throw out my own ‘challenge’ it would be just that. Let’s rattle the cages more for both the good and the not so good things that we all know are happening. Finally, on a personal note, I’d like to pay tribute to my colleague Gill Prentice who is stepping down from her role as the magazine’s proofreader. As with so many people in publishing, our careers have intertwined over the years. For the past four years Gill and I have worked together on Local Government Magazine. Many years before that, we had worked together on Management Magazine and NZ Marketing Magazine. Time and again, Gill has found my terrible mistakes and gently pointed them out. A consummate professional, she has been unfailingly kind, wise, funny and supportive: the best kind of colleague. Enjoy your next adventures, Gill. And thank you for caring.

Ruth Le Pla, editor, ruth@localgovernmentmag.co.nz

A LS O P U B L I S H ES

Contractor, Quarry & Mining and Water New Zealand magazines

EDITOR Ruth Le Pla Mobile: 021.266.3978 ruth@localgovernmentmag.co.nz SALES CONSULTANT Charles Fairbairn DDI: 09 636 5724 Mobile: 021 411 890 charles@contrafed.co.nz ADMINISTRATION/SUBSCRIPTIONS admin@contrafed.co.nz DDI: 09 636 5715 PRODUCTION Design: Jonathan Whittaker studio@contrafed.co.nz Printing: PMP MAXUM CONTRIBUTORS Dave Cull, Sarah Macky, Alec McNeil, Patricia Moore, Craig Pocock, Peter Silcock, Lesley Smith GENERAL MANAGER David Penny DDI: 09 636 5710 Mobile: 021.190.4078 david@contrafed.co.nz EDITORIAL MANAGER Alan Titchall DDI: 09 636 5712 Mobile: 027.405.0338 alan@contrafed.co.nz CONTRIBUTIONS WELCOME Please contact the editor before sending them in. Articles in Local Government Magazine are copyright and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the permission of the publisher. DISCLAIMER Local Government Magazine is an independent publication owned and produced by Contrafed Publishing. The views expressed in the magazine are not necessarily those of any of its shareholding organisations.

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ISSN 0028-8403

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IN BRIEF

William Thomas (Bill) Wasley received a Distinguished Service Award at the New Zealand Planning Institute (NZPI) conference in Tauranga recently. A graduate of Massey University (Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Regional Planning with Honours), Bill has been a member of NZPI for over 30 years. The submission in support of his nomination said his various appointments over his career demonstrate Bill’s success in working with others and providing leadership across a wide variety of interests. “His ability and a clear understanding of governance has benefitted, and continues to benefit, many communities. Bill’s various appointments to chair mayoral forums is a clear indication of the respect which others in senior governance roles have for his understanding of strategic planning. “In our view, Bill Wasley has made, and continues to make, a significant contribution to the image and practice of planning and he is recognised as a leader in the planning profession.” As a senior member of the planning profession, Bill has undertaken roles in planning and management in local government in the Bay of Plenty area and other parts of the country. This has included roles as acting CEO of Tauranga District Council and company secretary for the Port of Tauranga. For over 20 years Bill has been director of Wasley Knell Consultants which specialises in integrated growth management, policy formulation, independent chairing and governance work, and development planning. Bill drew praise for his ability to work

directly with, and have a high level of confidence amongst, a wide range of elected local, regional and national community representatives as well as other planning colleagues and those of related professions. “It is this latter ability which sets Bill apart from most other planners,” reads the submission. “Through both planning and governance roles over a sustained period, Bill has positively contributed to the development and implementation of growth management work streams in various parts of New Zealand (including the Bay of Plenty, Canterbury and the Waikato). “Bill’s particular interest has been to achieve integration between growth management, economic development and social / community approaches. This work has also seen Bill involved in facilitating successful relationships between local and central government. The submission notes Bill's ability as an independent chairman with appointments to integrate the varied interests of communities. “The combination of Bill’s personal attributes (including respectfulness, integrity and clarity of thought) enables him to bring diverse interests

together and work towards a common aim.” The submission went on to note how his high-level chairmanship roles have facilitated integrated development, access to local and government finance, and successful community development in various parts of the country. Bill’s recent roles include: • Independent chair of the Western Bay of Plenty Smart Growth Leadership Group which comprises mayors and councillors of the three partner councils (Tauranga City, Western Bay District and Bay of Plenty Region), and representatives from tangata whenua, the local district health board and the NZ Transport Agency. Bill also chaired the Smart Growth Governance Group during the strategy formulation phase of the Smart Growth project and the subsequent Smart Growth Implementation Group; • Independent chair of the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Strategy Advisory Committee, the Greater Christchurch Urban Development Strategy Implementation Committee, and the Greater Christchurch Partnership Committee; • Independent chair of the Waikato Future Proof Implementation Committee (established to implement a collaboratively-developed growth management strategy for the Waikato); • Independent chair of the Waikato Regional Council-established Collaborative Stakeholder Group bringing together river iwi partners as well as various sector and community representative groups to address issues on the Waikato and Waipa Rivers and resulting in a regional plan change to better protect the health of the rivers.

Tracey Bell from the Timaru District Council is presented an award (and $250) from Brett North, from Wellington City Council, for her presentation.

Phillipa O’Shea, winner of the 2018 Innovation Award, and Theuns Henning from Auckland University (Infrastructure Asset Management). This award is sponsored by IDS, and the prize was $1000 along with a plaque and certificate for her presentation. Phillipa works for Downer NZ and her presentation was called “You can pick your friends but not your family” in relation to road networks and asset management.

Bill Wasley receives his Distinguished Service Award from New Zealand Planning Institute chair Bryce Julyan.

Focus on roading data By all accounts, the 2018 Road Infrastructure Management Forum (RIMs) was a great success with around 180 delegates attending the event that was held at the Palmerston North Conference and Function Centre. Split over two days, this engineering conference covers the importance of securing and collecting quality asset data and, once it had been obtained, how to best use it to make informed and effective management decisions in relation to publicly-owned road and pavement assets.

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IMAGE COURTESY OF MARK TANTRUM PHOTOGRAPHY / NEW ZEALAND PLANNING INSTITUTE

Bill Wasley’s long service to planning recognised

LGNZ / NZTA pair up for Land Transport Programme Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) and the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) are partnering to work through the changes in the draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport and get ready to deliver the 2018-21 National Land Transport Programme (NLTP). LGNZ CE Malcolm Alexander and Transport Agency CE Fergus Gammie say it’s important that local government is prepared for the funding opportunities created by the new GPS, whatever its shape when finalised by the end of June 2018. “Together, we need to explore all the opportunities that are available to bring forward new programmes of work, particularly those with a strong safety and resilience focus,” they say. “We believe working together will help both our organisations give effect to the GPS.” The GPS is the government’s statement of what it wants to achieve for land transport, including rail, over the next 10 years. Transport Minister Phil Twyford has signalled significant changes in strategic direction that include a focus on safety, improved transport access to economic and social opportunities, as well as providing more resilience and choice, better environmental outcomes and infrastructure to deliver the best value for money. Fergus says the Transport Agency is committed to supporting local government to take advantage of new and increased funding.

“This may mean bringing forward some programmes of work, but more importantly this is about thinking more broadly and investigating ways to deliver safety, environmental and accessibility outcomes to communities along with value for money,” he says. The Transport Agency will offer support and partnering, to help with activities such as council-led business cases, procurement and delivery.

The Transport Agency has already released two key documents to help councils – its draft Investment Assessment Framework (IAF) to assist councils understand how projects will be assessed, and the draft Transport Agency Investment Proposal (TAIP) which includes investment in the state highway network and other significant areas. The TAIP will provide three functions: providing an indication of which projects are likely to proceed based on new investment criteria; where projects will need to be rescoped; and considering what works could be undertaken to better manage safety and resilience. LGNZ and the NZTA have also established two joint groups: a sector reference group to provide advice, frame up discussions on the draft GPS and prepare for the strategic changes needed in Regional Land Transport Plans; and a governance group to provide leadership and help with any barriers in responding to the change. The draft GPS will be confirmed on June 30 and the NLTP will be adopted on August 31. “The work we do in the next few months is important to ensure each council gets its share of available national land transport funding and that we work constructively to deliver a great land transport system,” say Malcolm and Fergus.

Making life easier Talk to IANZ about integrated accreditation solutions for local authority services: Building Consent RMA approvals Food Safety assurance For confidence through accreditation, choose IANZ. ianz.govt.nz 09 525 6655

MAY 2018 LOCAL GOVERNMENT MAGAZINE

IN BRIEF

ON THE MOVE Palmerston North City Council (PNCC) has appointed David Warburton as chair of the project steering group for the best practicable option (BPO) review of its wastewater treatment plant upgrade. David was chief executive of Auckland Transport from 2010 to 2017, overseeing transport strategy, design, construction, maintenance and operation throughout the Auckland region. He has served in governance roles with a range of companies across sectors including primary industry, energy and property development, and was chief executive of Whanganui District Council from 2005 to 2008. PNCC’s resource consent to discharge treated wastewater from its Totara Road Wastewater Treatment Plant into the Manawatu River is due to expire in 2028. As part of the new consent process, council is required to undertake a wastewater BPO review, which involves investigations and planning to determine a preferred option for wastewater treatment and disposal for the city. This review must be completed by June 2021, with a new resource consent application lodged by June 2022. In its 10 Year Plan, currently in public consultation, PNCC has provisioned $130 million for the upgrade. Otakaro chief executive Albert Brantley will be stepping down from his position around June this year to focus on other national and overseas activities. Albert was the group’s inaugural chief executive on its formation in April 2016. Anne Callinan is the new chair of Simpson Grierson. Her long career at the law firm includes six years on the board. Professional services company GHD has appointed six experienced leaders to support the continuing growth of its local business. Andrew Roy relocated from GHD in Melbourne to lead the New Zealand business in the northern region. Most recently, Andrew was the project manager

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1. David Warburton. 2. Andrew Roy. 3. Kathryn Musgrave. 4. Debbie Fellows. 5. Justine Bennett. 6. Ian Froggatt.

7. Hayley Ellison. 8. Richard Reilly.

for the North East Link, Victoria’s largest ever transport project. Kathryn Musgrave, technical director, operations and optimisation, joins GHD from the NZ Transport Agency and is a specialist in operations, optimisation, transportation and intelligent transport systems. Debbie Fellows, project director and delivery leader, has over 25 years’ experience in engineering geology and geotechnical engineering. Tim Harty, Waikato business development lead, has experience in running the roading, three waters, refuse, parks, property and facilities portfolios for Waikato District Council. Justine Bennett, lead consultant for environment and water, has over 20 years’ experience in environmental management focusing on multidisciplinary infrastructure projects, including consenting and community consultation. Ian Froggatt, lead geotechnical designer, has extensive experience of geotechnical design within a consultancy environment. He led a geotechnical team as part of the Stronger Christchurch Infrastructure Rebuild Team (SCIRT) from 2011 to 2014.

Engineering and design consultancy Harrison Grierson has pointed Hayley Ellison to the new role of technical leader urban development. Hayley recently returned to this country after 20 years in the UK. She is a specialist in mixed-use regeneration projects on previouslydeveloped land and technicallyconstrained sites. Hayley has led multi-disciplinary consultancy teams on large-scale high-quality urban development projects. These delivered thousands of new homes, including affordable housing; job-creation; new public and private amenities; and enhanced public spaces. Hayley’s skills include strategic planning advice and project management. The Australasian Corrosion Association (ACA) has appointed Richard Reilly as its chief executive officer. He is based in Melbourne. Richard has been chief executive of the Federation of Automotive Products Manufacturers for over six years. He also spent nine years at professional services firm Deloitte.

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IN BRIEF

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY MAY 2

20 – 21 NZ Construction & Civil Industries Summit. Ellerslie Events Centre, Auckland Conferenz.co.nz/construction

Green Pavlova 2018. Riccarton Park, Christchurch www.greenpavlova.com

9 Climate Change, Stormwater and Wastewater Systems. Webinar bit.ly/SOLGM_ClimateChangeWebinar

20 – 22 IPWEA NZ 2018 Conference. Energy Events Centre, Rotorua ipweanz2018.co.nz

9 – 10 Clean New Zealand. ASB Showgrounds Auckland www.cleannzexpo.co.nz

21 – 22 Climate Change and Local Government Forum. Mac’s Function Centre, Wellington bit.ly/SOLGM_ClimateChange

9 – 11 WIOG Conference 2018. Convention Centre, Palmerston North www.wiog.org.nz

25 – 26 Intelligent Towns, Networks & Assets. Grand Millennium, Auckland Conferenz.co.nz/Intelligent

14 – 15 ALGIM Autumn Conference GIS and IRM. James Cook Grand Chancellor, Wellington www.algim.org.nz/algim-events/Autumn-Conference

26 – 27 Contract Management – Wellington. TBA, Wellington bit.ly/SOLGM_ContractMgmt

LG Accelerated Leadership Programme – Christchurch Region. Different locations. bit.ly/SOLGM_AccLeadershipChCh

JULY

Organisational Design, Choices and Opportunities. Webinar bit.ly/SOLGM_OrgDesignWebinar

Community Services and Facilities Forum. The Hub – Toitu Poneke, Wellington bit.ly/SOLGM_CommunityServices

5 – 6 Governance Professionals and Committee Advisors Forum. TBA, Wellington bit.ly/SOLGM_GovProfForum 15 – 17 LGNZ Conference & EXCELLENCE Awards 2018. Christ’s College, Christchurch www.lgnz2018.co.nz AUGUST

22 – 23 Practical Procurement Training. Auckland Airport, Auckland www.cleverbuying.com

1 – 2

23 – 25 Stormwater Conference 2018. Millennium Copthorne, Queenstown stormwaterconference.org.nz

13 – 14 Community Plan Forum. TBC, Rotorua bit.ly/SOLGM_CommunityPlanForumRotorua

30 Recipe for Disaster: Building Policy on Shaky Ground. Webinar bit.ly/SOLGM_RecipeForDisasterWebinar

16 – 17 Building Nations Symposium. ANZ Viaduct Events Centre, Auckland infrastructure.org.nz/BNS-201

JUNE

19 – 23 Waves. TBA, Rotorua bit.ly/NZRA_Waves

7 – 8

Future Workforce Forum. Ellerslie Racecourse, Auckland bit.ly/SOLGM_FutureWorkforce

14 – 15 Project Management. Caccia Birch House, Palmerston North bit.ly/SOLGM_ProjManagement

2018 EDS Conference. Grand Millennium Hotel, Auckland www.eds.org.nz/our-work/eds-conferences

Would you like us to include your event in this calendar? Please email details to ruth@localgovernmentmag.co.nz

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PRODUCTS & SERVICES Environment Foundation relaunches its web-based Environment Guide The Environment Foundation has updated and relaunched its Environment Guide website. Among other changes, the site now reflects the latest amendments to the Resource Management Act and other environmental legislation. The guide is written in plain English and covers a wide range of environmental legislation and processes. It has sections on freshwater, biodiversity, air, coastal / marine, landscape and climate change. It also includes information

for key sectors such as agriculture, fishing, horticulture and forestry. The online guide aims to help individuals, community groups and businesses more effectively participate in environmental management decision-making processes. The NZ Law Foundation and Environmental Defence Society supported the Environment Foundation in preparing the guide. www.environmentguide.org.nz

OAG releases Local Government Audit Report The Auditor-General’s report Local government: Results of the 2016/17 audits raises concern that local authorities may not be sufficiently reinvesting in their assets. It points to a risk that the quality of assets is deteriorating, and future generations will wear the costs of this. The Office of the Auditor-General (OAG) calls on each local authority to consider whether it is investing enough to maintain its existing infrastructure. “This requires each local authority to have a good understanding of their critical assets and the cost of adequately maintaining them,” it says. This will be an area of focus during the OAG’s audits of local authorities’ 2018-28 long-term plans. Nevertheless, the financial results for 2016/17 did not reveal dramatic changes or significant new trends compared to previous years. As in previous years, the OAG once again also expressed concern that not all local authorities made their audited information and summary annual reports available to the public in a timely manner. The report also summarised the OAG’s work in performance audits and inquiry requests, rating matters and severance payments to departing senior employees. To download the report go to: bit.ly/OAG_LG_2016_17

Mobile Mentor rolls out Intune security service offerings Mobile Mentor, a member of the New Zealand government’s Telecommunications as a Service (TaaS) programme, has announced the availability of two new mobile security services for government agencies that are deploying Microsoft 365. Microsoft Intune Management and Intune App Protection Policies are available from the government’s TaaS catalogue. The new security offerings leverage the features of Microsoft EM+S to protect mobile devices, mobile apps and most importantly, any data held in the Microsoft 365 applications.

The Mobile Mentor Intune Management service handles the design, deployment and management of Microsoft Intune for devices running iOS, Android, Windows 10 and macOS. The service includes the policies, settings and profiles to enrol devices using Apple DEP or Android Enterprise. The service also includes management of an enterprise app store with a white-list and black-list of public apps and the deployment and management of enterprise apps. Reporting dashboards are configured to show the key metrics associated with the security posture of the mobile environment.

The second offering from Mobile Mentor is App Protection Policies. These can be enabled for Microsoft Office 365 mobile apps such as Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint. When a user enrols to use the Office 365 app with their Azure Active Directory account, the app protection policies are applied to those apps. These policies protect data in the Office 365 apps and prevent leakage to other apps, for example preventing copy / paste actions between Word and Google Docs.

MAY 2018 LOCAL GOVERNMENT MAGAZINE

PRODUCTS & SERVICES New, free resource for the street lighting and smart controls community IPWEA has launched a collection of 10 videos featuring interviews with some of the street lighting and smart control (SLSC) industry’s preeminent voices. The Lighting the Way Series features advice and insights from SLSC council members: Philips, Light Source Solutions, Gerard Lighting and Cisco, and Technical Advisory Group members: Broadspectrum, Telensa, Electrix, OrangeTek, ENE.HUB and Schreder. Topics covered in the free videos are: 1 What colour temperature should we use? 2 Should we invest in LEDs now or wait? 3 Will buying luminaires in bulk save money? 4 What about glare?

5 What smart control communications approach should we use? 6 What’s the business case for smart controls? 7 Should street lights be dimmed during off-peak hours? 8 What smart-city applications are made possible with smart controls? 9 What’s the future of smart controls? 10 What’s the future of the multi-function pole? Bonus topic: What do our partners think of the SLSC Programme? The videos are on: bit.ly/SLSC_Videos More information from: emily.ditchburn@ipwea.org

Whakatane plumps for PLANet Whakatane District Council has picked Telensa to deploy its PLANet intelligent streetlighting system. Part of a New Zealand Transport Agency programme to convert existing road lighting to LED, the project will involve replacing Whakatane’s 2500 streetlights with wirelessly-managed LEDs. Work is due to be finished in June this year.

Earlier this year, Wellington City Council also selected Telensa to deploy its PLANet intelligent street lighting system. PLANet is an end-to-end intelligent street lighting system. It consists of wireless nodes connecting individual lights, a dedicated wireless network owned by the city, and a central management application.

Acuite / PlanGrid pact to lift construction analytics Construction productivity software partners Acuite and PlanGrid have joined forces to offer the construction sector a way to improve performance through streamlining project delivery and generating insights and analytics. Acuite is a New Zealand company while PlanGrid is based in San Francisco. The two companies facilitate the flow of project KPI information between platforms. Project data collected at the source through PlanGrid populates Acuite’s analytics dashboards. This helps users to identify trends, track performance improvements, highlight poor performance, reduce risk and improve margins. The two firms say that, traditionally, project teams have gathered at the end of a month to run through spreadsheets and data to analyse how they were tracking – often uncovering hidden problems and delays that should have been rectified earlier. Now, monthly reports in real time give project managers and executive management the ability to recognise issues and jump in as soon as they become apparent, enabling conversations to happen before the fact instead of fighting fires that are often only noticed when they started to delay and derail the project.

Acuite CCO and co-founder David Speight.

OnDemand service from Conferenz

Tell us about your products & services

Conferenz has launched a new service providing free access to selected presentations, interviews and white papers from recent events. Current topics on the OnDemand service include

If you have recently launched a new product or service please email editor Ruth Le Pla for next steps on sharing your story with the people who make the buying decisions in local government. All articles published at the discretion of the editor. ruth@localgovernmentmag.co.nz

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business intelligence, digital nations and safety. New content will be added regularly. To subscribe to the free service go to: bit.ly/Conferenz_OnDemand

WaterWar app piles on the pressure SRK Consulting, a global firm of engineers and scientists, has brought water-saving closer to home with a web-based app that can get individuals to reduce their domestic water use – introducing fun and competition to the exercise. WaterWar goes beyond calculating water use by using peer pressure as a motivator for saving water. The app allows people and companies to compete. It is the brainchild of two young SRK colleagues – environmental and civil engineer Xanthe Adams in Cape Town, South Africa, and civil engineer Whelan Naidoo in Johannesburg. They describe the idea as a combination of water sciences, programming and psychology. They say that while there is scope for water-related organisations to embrace and sponsor the app for broader use, there is nothing stopping any organisation from using the publicly-accessible portion of the

tool or approaching SRK to use the tool in its sustainability journey. The app was a finalist in the Hack4Water ‘hackathon’ – a 2016 initiative by the Department of Water Affairs and the Open

Government Partnership South Africa to encourage efforts to address the country’s water challenges. More details on YouTube: bit.ly/WaterWarApp

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MAY 2018 LOCAL GOVERNMENT MAGAZINE

EVENTS

AT THE NEW ZEALAND PLANNING INSTITUTE ANNUAL CONFERENCE IN TAURANGA

1. Rajiv Raman (Hamilton City Council) & Jason Wright (Waikato District Council).

6. Andrew Wills (Planning Matters) & David Dixon (Stantec, Boston, USA).

2. Arthur Flintoff (Nga Potiki Resource Management Unit) & Heni Butler (Ruapehu District Council).

7. Graeme Cooper (Waikato Regional Council) & Stephen Wynne-Jones (Department of Conservation).

3. Sara Abusidou (Waikato District Council), Michelle Ruske (Aurecon) & Kimberley Freeman (Waikato District Council).

8. Caroline Cunliffe & Andrew Plummer (both from Objective Trapeze) with Colleen Sheldon (Horizons Regional Council).

4. Luke McSoriley, Nick Aiken & George Enersen (all from WSP Opus).

9. Bryce Julyan (Beca), Keryn Sinclair (Jacobs) & Andrew Cumming (Hutt City Council).

5. Wendy Saunders & Greg Holland (both from GNS Science).

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IMAGES COURTESY OF MARK TANTRUM PHOTOGRAPHY / NEW ZEALAND PLANNING INSTITUTE.

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MAY 2018 LOCAL GOVERNMENT MAGAZINE

COMMUNITIES

Landscapes of

Misery

From Louisiana slave huts to landscapes of the New Zealand Land Wars. A visit to Louisiana, raised unsettling questions for Craig Pocock about how communities square up to their past.

hile travelling across Louisiana, the low coastal delta where the Mississippi floods across the land, it is hard not to reflect on the overly-simplistic images pop culture paints of the South. Yes, there are old timber houses, pickup trucks and churches everywhere. Some are traditionally steeple-style while others are simple cinder block or tin sheds with hand-painted signs advertising God and hours of worship. The landscape feels old and wet. Signs of human occupation are littered across the land from above-ground whitewashed graves that keep loved ones out of the high-water table, to ads for barbeques, ice houses and shrimp. There is a fragile feeling to the human occupation of this land, as if the water and vegetation could take back the dwellings and roads at any moment. As much as swamps, pickups and churches are what we have come to expect from the South, the area is much more complex than pop culture often acknowledges. As my brother and I travelled through Louisiana, it was clear this is the epicentre of all things Cajun and Creole, with a rich cultural history that comes from the many diverse groups of people making a life in

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the swamps and waterways after fleeing persecution. The diversity of cultures is tangible in the local music, dancing, food, dialects and place names: and Louisianaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tourism depends on it. A conversation with a Lafayette local during a late night of whiskey, music and political debate in a Cajun dance hall had us making a detour on our road trip. It led us down a narrow, dead-end country road called Laurel Valley flanked by tall sugar cane and water. I am not sure I would have been told about this place if it were not for the whiskey the night before. The sugar cane created a narrow viewing corridor limiting views across the landscape. As we came around the bend we got our first glimpse of what we had come to see: rows and rows of weathered timber huts neatly lined up on either side of what I imagine was once a dirt road. This was a village of slave huts with a clear grid layout, narrow streets and front porches all looking towards each other. You could still see the old brick sugar mill, now overgrown, and the crane that would move bundles of sugar cane from the collection point into the factory.

MAY 2018 LOCAL GOVERNMENT MAGAZINE

COMMUNITIES We stood on the shoulder of the road, on the right side of a barbed wire fence. The “no trespass” signs sent a clear message which we wanted to respect. The photos tell the story and I am not going to describe the slave village in detail. What was, for me, more powerful and unexpected was my emotional reaction to this place. We looked at these neat rows of huts, fascinated that this place still existed, yet saddened that it had a need to exist in the first place. I had always known about the period of history that this stark landscape represents but it’s different seeing it in person. For me, it embodies a history of misery for so many – for the slaves that were forced against their will to work and live here, and for the desperate share farmers who lived in these same huts following the abolition of slavery, for these people had little hope of achieving any more than just existing. Standing on the side of the road felt like trespassing on someone’s private memories and it was uncomfortable. In the course of an hour, half a dozen pickup trucks drove by, slowing as they passed. I expected someone to lean out of the pickup window and tell us to go away. No one did. Feeling uncomfortable and challenged is not a bad thing and in that moment I felt connected to this period of history and reflected on the importance of retaining this landscape of misery. It is not a comfortable landscape by any means but sometimes there is value in having such reminders of the past so that there can be a deeper empathy for the people wronged. I felt appreciation to the land owners and community that preserved this village so that I was allowed to view it, even if only from the side of the road. Dwelling on the experience back home in San Antonio, I was reflecting on the questions: “Does New Zealand have the same types of landscapes? Is it even fair to try and compare a landscape of slavery with any landscape in New Zealand?” I

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think the answer is probably yes because misery is in the eye of the beholder. I remembered my early years as a landscape architect watching the daily news coverage of Maori and Police facing off during the Moutoa Gardens occupation. In 1995, the landscape of Moutoa Gardens was a consistent reminder of the colonial wrongs dealt to some local iwi. To local Maori, this landscape was more than just a visual reminder. It was an “enabling” landscape. A measure of the Queen’s Chain was physically built into the ground that allowed surveyors to calibrate their instruments which were then used to help confiscate local Maori lands. The landscape design, memorials, park’s name, and Queen’s Chain were a constant reminder of that unhappy history and so in 1995 it was the perfect place to occupy to make a point. I know the Whanganui District Council and local Maori have a positive relationship and are currently working towards addressing the challenges of Moutoa Gardens and it will be a good case study to watch. However, I know from working in many of New Zealand’s towns, cities and regions that these landscapes and public spaces do exist in many communities but are often not acknowledged or addressed. It is likely that any community that was close to the New Zealand land wars probably has a Moutoa Gardens / Pakaitore or a Bastion Point / Takaparawa equivalent somewhere. All landscapes are political. Viewed through a cultural lens, one person’s war memorial is another’s pillar of hate. One community’s airport runway is another’s desecrated burial ground. One community’s rose garden is another’s historical meeting site flattened and disrespected. All are constant reminders of the wrongs done to a group of people within a community.

However as in the case of the Laurel Valley slave village, there may be a case for retaining these landscapes if it helps acknowledge the past and helps heal a community. Landscapes could be used as part of a truth and reconciliation process but that can only happen if they still exist.

process. Often more than one group has a significant history and role to play in the site’s future. The process has to be inclusive, transparent, robust and honest. Those voices closest to the pain and misery suffered should be at the forefront of the discussion.

1 Identification

3 The future of public spaces of misery

A starting point might be to acknowledge and record the existence of such cultural landscapes. They might not be classified as heritage landscapes or seem like important public spaces but they will exist. I know that there is fear on many sides of identifying these sites of importance. Often the local iwi do not want to identify sites for fear of them being damaged further. Local government sometimes does not want to identify sites in case it limits future planning and growth opportunities. However, unless these sites are identified it is difficult to move forward as a community in acknowledging a fair and equitable record of our past. Like the Laurel Valley slave huts, these sites can become powerful and valuable community assets, if managed well.

It’s not about protecting and keeping all landscapes that have painful pasts or glorify an uncomfortable period of time such as the Maori Land Confiscations. For some landscapes, a complete redesign may be the best solution but for others a joint partnership in the management of the space, or just recognition of the past wrongs, can be a step in the right direction. That’s for the community to decide. No matter the outcome, it is important that the process of identification, communication and transformation is not just about physical change or management of a space but is used to heal communities and inform future generations of the values we have, which hopefully includes transparency and inclusion in our public spaces. LG

2 Collaboration with community Not all landscapes of misery have a place in our society. Communities, local government, city managers and designers need to consider how these landscapes are managed, edited, interpreted or removed. How do we appropriately acknowledge the past without being seen as supporting symbols or spaces of misery? Only a community with a deep and intimate understanding of the history of a place can identify a landscape of misery and judge its merits and future role. I appreciate this is a challenging and time-consuming

his article was adapted and edited from an article T ‘Slave huts, sugar cane and landscape of misery’. The original article and additional images can be seen at bit.ly/DesignEnvironment • Craig Pocock is an award-winning landscape architect, researcher and writer who was recently awarded an NZILA fellowship for his research into the carbon landscape. Post Christchurch earthquakes, Craig now lives in San Antonio, Texas, but continues to work in New Zealand on urban development projects and climate change strategies. info@designenvironment.co.nz

MAY 2018 LOCAL GOVERNMENT MAGAZINE

PLANNING

IOBY

In Our Back Yards

US crowdfunding initiative IOBY is the antithesis of NIMBYism. It looks for the positive in communities, one tiny project at a time. What’s more, it may tap into much deeper currents to help build civic participation and long-term community resilience. Ruth Le Pla reports.

fter September 11 in New York, nonprofit organisation New Yorkers for Parks handed out free daffodil bulbs to residents. The idea was to have the bulbs bloom all at once across the city. Come springtime, flowers burst from tiny nooks and crannies. In previously-bare scraps of earth, around lone street trees and squished into old planter boxes, a sea of yellow flowers bloomed. It was meant as a memorial to those who died in the 9/11 tragedy. It was meant to connect people to their identity as New Yorkers, and to signal strength and sympathy. But it also showed how much New Yorkers are interested in caring for tiny spaces in their city, says Erin Barnes. Indirectly, it unleashed the IOBY movement. IOBY stands for In Our Back Yards. It’s the positive opposite of NIMBYism. It’s the antithesis of the angry, blocking, reactive dynamic that often characterises community-council relationships. And it uses miniscule baby-steps to effect change.

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Erin Barnes is one of IOBY’s founders and its executive director. Speaking at the NZ Planning Institute (NZPI) annual conference in Tauranga recently, Erin says IOBY puts residents at the centre of decision-making and leading ideas for change. Its philosophy, she says, mirrors that of writer and activist Jane Jacobs who believed that “cities have the capability of providing something for everybody only because, and only when, they’re created by everybody”. “Many community engagement processes don’t do a great job of involving residents,” says Erin. “Decisions are often made by the people who have the most technical expertise or power.” After the daffodil initiative, a US Forest Service urban field station study identified some 3000 tiny groups taking care of pocket parks, strips of grass and tree beds across New York City. Tellingly, it showed that more than 70 percent of those groups were run by volunteers and more than half of the groups

2 had shoestring budgets of less than US$1000 a year. Enter IOBY, whose cofounders saw a need to support such groups through small-scale funding initiatives via a crowdfunding platform. In practice, it means anyone can trigger a campaign to raise money to help calm traffic near a local school, or buy a lawnmower to keep berms tidy or a tin of paint for a community mural. While IOBY works right across the US, it puts organisers on the ground in those urban centres where it believes the need is greatest. Erin says IOBY tends to work in the “overlooked spots”. “In New York City, for instance, 80 percent of public spaces are streets, so a lot of projects take place in the streets. “In a lot of cities where we work, public spaces are vacant properties: an abandoned home, an empty lot or an underused surface parking lot. We’re trying to bring attention to the disparity between public spaces and public good in cities.” Data shows many such local initiatives are about communities giving themselves a hand up. Contrary to popular expectations, more than half of total charitable dollars donated in the US comes from the lowest-earning third of households. Time and again, IOBY’s own research shows local people give locally.

STRENGTH IN NUMBERS Erin adds that research shows only eight to 11 percent of Americans are civically-engaged. “Most people have the motivation to stand up and do something for their community when they’re angry or upset that something is going to happen to their neighbourhood,” she says. “That’s when you get NIMBYism. “But that stops everything in its tracks and makes it hard for communities to work with government. It also makes governments tired of working with communities and hard for community members to work with each other because everybody’s pretty angry.” So IOBY, says Erin, focuses on working with people who have positive solutions for their communities. “IOBY is interested in breaking down barriers, such as lack

3 1. Memphis, Tennessee: RZOM Mural 2. Newark, New Jersey: Growing Our School Garden. 3. New York City, New York: Culinary Kids.

of funding, that stand in the way of this happening.” Erin adds that when citizens participate in building their communities from the ground up they’re also building civic strength. “In the event of a disaster, people are already knit together and connected, and more able to figure out solutions.” Erin cites three examples of IOBY community projects.

CASE STUDY 1 ATLANTA CITY, GEORGIA Binh Dam & the bus stop signs Atlanta, Georgia is the ninth largest US city in terms of population, with some 5.8 million people living in the wider metropolitan area. The inner city, however, covers just 347 square kilometres while the rest of the city sprawls out widely. Provision of transport services deteriorates towards the edges of the city. Atlanta’s population has grown by 15 to 40 percent every decade since 1910. The current population is about 50 percent white, 32 percent black and 10 percent Latino. Erin tells the story of Binh Dam, a current IOBY leader who had emigrated to the US to finish his PhD in science and technology at Georgia Tech. An avid user of public transport, Binh would take the bus to work and school every day. Binh had previously lived in Paris, where it was standard to have bus timetables available at every stop. “Incredibly,” says Erin, “Atlanta didn’t do that. It just said, ‘Bus stop’. The information that you would expect to have in regular transit, such as what bus is coming next and when, was totally absent.” One night, when Binh was coming home from a concert, there was a service interruption on the bus line. In response, the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) had zip tied to the bus stop sign a plastic bag with a piece of paper inside. It read, ‘Service interruption’. MARTA gave no further clues.

MAY 2018 LOCAL GOVERNMENT MAGAZINE

PLANNING

SHOULDN’T THE GOVERNMENT BE DOING THIS? IOBY co-founder Erin Barnes says she is often asked whether the government should be doing the work that her organisation has taken on. She says it is important for government to shoulder responsibility for large infrastructure projects such as roads, pipes and water. But she argues that smallErin Barnes scale IOBY projects such as “making sure basketball courts have nice striping on them so kids know where the three-point line is” can “fill in the gaps for now when government can’t step up”. She adds that voter turnout in the US is low. “Even if everyone did vote, it’s important to know that democracy requires more than just voting and protesting. Small acts of civic participation help flex that muscle, so people know they should practise being a citizen, showing up and doing things for civic life every day.” Finally, she says governments often use “cookie cutter” solutions that may have worked in one city but are not appropriate for another. “A lot of communities require different things.” (See the box story below.)

SAFER STREETS When IOBY asked communities what would make their streets safer, it received a wide variety of responses. “One solution doesn’t fit all,” says co-founder Erin Barnes. “I thought I’d heard it all until somebody said, ‘the wild dogs really keep me out of the streets’. I hadn’t thought about wild dogs.” Here are five examples of community responses to safer streets. 1O ne mum used orange flags to alert high-speed traffic to kids crossing a road to a local park. 2A community in Los Angeles saw people’s preference for driving, rather than walking, as the biggest threat to public health. They turned a street intersection into a musical station. “They thought if they made a ‘piano’ on the crosswalk that you could play with your feet, people might just walk more,” says Erin. “Now everything you do when you’re crossing the street plays music.” 3 In Detroit, two women started the Hollaback initiative to address verbal harassment and catcalling on the streets. “Women felt unsafe and didn’t want to walk in downtown Detroit because people were calling them names.” 4 In Highland Park, Detroit, lighting was taken off the streets after the city went bankrupt. “Neighbours created a cooperative to own solar-powered street lamps so no-one could ever take away their power.” 5 Alternatively, for a dark-sky community in Utah, safety meant eliminating light pollution. “They wanted to be able to see the Milky Way,” says Erin. “So they fundraised a few tens of thousands of dollars on IOBY to take down their street lamps.”

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Binh saw his chance to act. He raised US$534 on IOBY’s crowdfunding platform and used the money to print paper bus schedules, insert them into plastic bags and zip tie them to each of the 52 bus stops on the line. Erin says a lot of IOBY projects happen before they receive a permit from local authorities. So next morning, she was expecting a phone call from MARTA saying they’re going to give Binh a slap on the wrist. “As it turns out, they were delighted. The transit authority thought this was the most amazing idea ever. They decided to create a volunteer corps in honour of Binh Dam asking other volunteers to follow in his footsteps and keep doing this.” Erin shows a picture of the ‘official authorised-by-the-cityagency’ group of volunteer leaders. “This is 2015 or 2016,” she says. “You know, there are smart phones: we’re talking about modern-day America right now. But this was the most innovative thing you could possibly imagine. And look how happy these nerds are. These are the biggest transit nerds I’ve ever seen in my life. So delighted.” MARTA asked volunteers to take selfies while they’re hanging up the bus schedules and tweet them out. “So, they did,” says Erin. “Look at all of these selfies and the bus schedules everywhere. This one is my favourite: ‘Let the revolution begin’. It’s just pieces of paper in plastic bags. Guys, this is amazing. Oh, this is incredible. It’s incredible that a transit authority would be this excited and open-minded about something like this.” But what happened next was really interesting, says Erin. “This volunteer corps – the MARTA Army as they call themselves – kept working together and became better organised over time. “Last year, one of the highways in Atlanta collapsed and nobody could drive to work. A couple of hundred thousand people were taking the subway who had never walked inside a subway station before and they had no idea what to do. “So, the transit authority asked the MARTA Army if they would go and help. ‘Where are you going? Let me help you read the map. I need you to take the little card and you go like this.’ And they assisted people through their first transit experiences. “That,” says Erin, “shows the power of what happens when people are well organised and have worked together before.”

CASE STUDY 2 MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE James & the lawnmower Memphis, Tennessee is a majority-black city with a population of around 650,000. It’s a poor city with a median household income of just US$32,000 a year. Back in 1960, most people were living inside the city’s urban core. Fast forward to 2000, and people had spread out. The population shift created large numbers of vacant lots – sometimes whole blocks – in the urban core. James Alsobrook is a community volunteer in a garden called Carnes, very close to downtown. “In other cities, Carnes would probably be a major commercial and residential hub because it’s close to the city hall,” Erin notes. “James is a super-dedicated volunteer. If you look at pictures on the Carnes garden website, you’ll notice James is in every single

one of them. He shows up every single day, just doing what he can. “Then one day IOBY got a campaign proposal called ‘We want to buy James a lawnmower’.” James had been using his own lawnmower to look after the grass at Carnes. He’d also trim the grass at adjacent vacant properties up and down the block just to try and keep the area looking better. Then somebody stole his lawnmower. The neighbours got together to raise money to buy a new one. “This is what the budget was for,” says Erin. “It was very specific. US$399 for the lawnmower. US$120 for a chain and lock. US$15 for a gas can and US$8 for a sharpening tool.” Erin says many nonprofit organisations and government programmes focus on neighbourhoods like Carnes due to high rates of diabetes and unemployment, and concerns about education and population loss. “Despite all the attention paid to this neighbourhood, no government programme would ever make sure James had a new lawnmower,” she says. “Why? Because he’s just a person. And, in general, we don’t trust [individual] people in the US. I don’t think anybody would really think that was the highest use of any public funding, either. “But people in that neighbourhood knew that James having a lawnmower meant all the vacant lots on that block would be mowed every single day. Everybody would have a little bit more pride in what they were doing. Small incremental growth really mattered to people in that neighbourhood.” James got his lawnmower.

CASE STUDY 3 CLEVELAND, OHIO The Bridge that Bridges Cleveland, Ohio used to be a manufacturing city with a ton of wealth. Home to the Rockefeller family, it received large investment in beautiful libraries and public spaces. The Rockefellers made sure trees were planted and some neighbourhoods today still benefit from their lasting beauty. But when the manufacturing industries failed, Cleveland suffered substantial loss of jobs, wealth and ultimately

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population. It endured one of the most rapid population declines of any US city. Its current population of just 385,000 celebrates that fewer people left town in the past 10 years than in the previous decade. Geographically small, the city spans just 213 square kilometres. The Cuyahoga River, which runs through the city, used to be so polluted that it caught fire in 1967 – an event which led to the creation of the US Clean Water Act. Erin says that, today, Cleveland is a city of two halves, divided by highways through its centre that split neighbourhoods in two. One side of the main highway enjoys the majority of the anchor institutions such as hospitals and universities and has benefited from considerable investment. In contrast, neighbourhoods on the other side are low-income. There’s a lot of population loss and vacancy in the urban core. “Before, those areas were tightly integrated,” says Erin. “Had a highway not been built, there would have been a far better opportunity to share some of the prosperity across those neighbourhoods. But there is one bridge. “Groups of neighbours from both sides of the highway got together and started talking about ways that they could bring their two neighbourhoods together. “Together, they decided they were literally going to use the bridge over this gigantic highway to be The Bridge that Bridges. They started an IOBY campaign to get funding to paint the story of the two neighbourhoods on the bridge. Everybody got out to paint together. They didn’t have a permit yet from the city to do their work. “The two leaders told us that while they were out painting one day a police officer drove onto the bridge and stopped. Everybody got really worried, really fast. “The police officer got out the car and walked up to them. He had tears in his eyes and said, ‘thank you so much for doing this. This is so important’. And then everybody burst into tears.” Erin says this is an important story about the way communities can come together to create good. “Cleveland is a very law-abiding city. People there would never do the sorts of things that New Yorkers and Memphians would do. “They really want to respect their city. Despite this, they decided to do something they knew could get them into trouble.” LG

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MAY 2018 LOCAL GOVERNMENT MAGAZINE

WASTE MANAGEMENT

Carrying the can Who pays for waste?

Marlborough District Council is looking at the opportunities for waste and cost reduction through product stewardship. Alec McNeil says the larger question is, who should pay?

ike other territorial authorities, Marlborough District Council (MDC) is required by law to promote effective and efficient waste management and minimisation within its district. It has met this obligation by developing region-wide council-owned infrastructure, serviced by private sector contracts, providing the community with various options for dealing with its rubbish and recycling. Unlike many other councils, MDC deals with virtually all the material from the regionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s household, commercial and industrial waste streams. This ensures that it can direct the flow of waste where it has options other than its landfill. Open book reporting on fees and charges provides transparency to the community and ensures all sectors are treated equitably. After a decade spent establishing the current arrangements, and while continuing to divert as much material as possible, council is now looking at the opportunities for waste and

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cost reduction through product stewardship. Marlborough has actively supported voluntary product stewardship schemes such as Agrecovery. The growth in recovered volumes through this programme has been achieved by raising awareness across primary industries and rural communities. This levy-funded approach by brand owners shows how product stewardship can work well when the producers of the product link with the retail distributors, agricultural contractors, consumers, waste collectors, recycling processors and local authorities. The challenge now is to replicate this approach to capture everyday consumer products and packaging. The cost associated with products and their end-oflife treatment has been externalised from business and socialised across the community in the form of rate-funded infrastructure and services. This approach is unsustainable

in the longer term if we want to reset the balance between economic activity and environmental impact. Innovation can provide business with a unique selling point and subsequent growth in market share. The challenge is what part, if any, policy settings can have in creating an environment where business will take the lead in reducing waste associated with products and packaging. Subsidisation has always played a part in economic activity but this should lead to innovation and opportunity, not the displacement of cost. The commodity markets for diverted products have always been volatile but the principle of diversion remains unaltered – it’s about quality. The recent reduction in access to Chinese recycling and reprocessing markets has caused a number of countries to reflect on the quality of their products and their collection and processing systems. It has been a wake-up call for them. They’re realising that

“

Is recycling a failed market response to consumption?

the status quo is not sustainable and has probably not been serving the wider environment for a number of years. In this country, the legislative mechanism for product stewardship is already in place through the Waste Minimisation Act 2008. The debate is over whether individual schemes should be mandatory or voluntary and who should pay – the taxpayer, ratepayer or producer / consumer. The voluntary approach taken to date may serve the private interests of individual organisations recovering products specific to their brand. But that still leaves the municipal sector to deal with the rest of their competitors’ products. Is product stewardship, used as a market advantage, serving the societal good? Mandatory schemes, while potentially removing market advantage, can be used to incentivise a sector to reduce waste by design. Converting a product and its packaging to be recyclable may not be the optimum response if reduction is the goal being sought. This leads to the question: is recycling a failed market response to consumption? Ratepayer-funded services are not without their advantage, depending on the procurement approach available to the local authority. This procurement approach can drive down the unit cost to householders and provide the private sector service providers with a guaranteed volume and surety of payment. Does this payment have to come from the ratepayer, though? Would an even greater advantage be achieved by aggregating the cost of waste across all taxpayers? Taxes collected centrally and distributed across the areas that we as a society have agreed to fund is one of the functions of government. Would this work in practice for waste and is it already happening to a certain extent? For example, the waste disposal levy could be viewed as a tax that is collected centrally and redistributed across the country. The advantage of this approach is the targeting of this tax to a specific area rather than absorbing it into the general exchequer. The disadvantage is the inequity of distribution. Who is best placed to determine how this tax is deployed from a strategic and operational perspective to reduce waste as well as divert it? That brings us back to the issue of influence. The challenge of reducing waste in a consumption-driven economy is simply a debate on the status quo. With all change, those who challenge the status quo run the risk of being marginalised. The voice of the activist is drowned out by the needs of business. The ability for business to

MAY 2018 LOCAL GOVERNMENT MAGAZINE

WASTE MANAGEMENT

Cost recovery revenues are generated from a number of sources.

ACTIVITY

REVENUE

USER PAYS

TARGETED RATES

GENERAL RATES

WASTE DISPOSAL LEVY

Kerbside (refuse)

$1,021,066

$193,647

$827,419

Kerbside (recycling)

$626,646

Transfer stations

$1,804,908

$1,246,661

$558,247

Landfills

$4,958,519

$4,923,636

$34,883

Waste projects

$1,182,931

$274,479

$732,363

$176,089

Totals

$9,594,070

$6,638,423

$1,454,065

$1,325,493

$176,089

Total %

100%

69%

15%

14%

Data on waste and diversion is drawn from contract reporting.

ACTIVITY

DISPOSAL

DIVERSION

Kerbside

4054 tonnes

1463 tonnes

Transfer stations

16,256 cubic metres

11,940 cubic metres

Resource recovery centre

<20 tonnes

5428 tonnes

Waste sorting centre

5832 tonnes

4027 tonnes

Compost

2269 cubic metres

15,763 cubic metres

Landfill

56,894 tonnes

<20 tonnes

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survive and grow is offset against the role of regulatory environment. There is a middle ground here; an opportunity to create the settings that encourage innovation and entrepreneurship while reassessing where the true cost of waste should lie. Like all local authorities, Marlborough is facing a growing expectation from its community that it will provide equity of service across the district without a noticeable increase in cost. Recycling will continue to be part of our response but it is waste reduction that will change the status quo and this must involve the private sector. Those who produce the goods that we all consume have an extraordinary innovation opportunity to re-set the waste streams of the future. Switching the cost of waste to the product and the packaging will nudge the private sector towards increased reduction, recovery and recycling, leading in turn to new opportunities in the waste industry. There is a fear that any public sector-led scheme could be financially and administratively inefficient. There are two aspects to the product stewardship approach; firstly the management of the programme and secondly the operation of the programme. Should these aspects be subject to a competitive market response?

The market brings competition but that can be limited by the size of the opportunity. Identifying the point at which the private sector can achieve its margin is an issue. Maximising the opportunity for reduction, recovery and recycling may be best served by allowing the programme manager to operate in a not-for-profit environment. Their focus would be driven by the goal of aggregating the effectiveness of the product stewardship scheme in achieving agreed objectives rather than creating a margin return for their own private interest. This would leave the market free to compete for the operational response and the pursuit of profit through innovation and entrepreneurship. Funding these product stewardship schemes would be achieved by placing a levy on the product and its associated packaging, resulting in a shift of the cost from public to the private interest. The strategic objectives in the programme management would address the principles of reduction, recovery and recycling by establishing a sustainable system that has scale. The market would then have the option of responding, based on this redefined status quo and reduced waste stream. LG â&#x20AC;˘A lec McNeil is solid waste manager at Marlborough District Council. Alec.McNeil@marlborough.govt.nz

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www.ijobsite.org.nz MAY 2018 LOCAL GOVERNMENT MAGAZINE

AWARDS

SOLGM Gala Dinner From creating a Maori language app, to harbour remediation work and steps towards becoming a digital council… Innovation and excellence in the local government management sector were celebrated at the recent Society of Local Government Managers (SOLGM) Gala Dinner in Auckland.

even exceptional and innovative project winners were announced at the annual SOLGM Gala Dinner, including a supreme award winner. Also announced were recipients of a leadership award, several overseas exchanges and leadership scholarships, and a management challenge. “The Gala Dinner is a very special event for the local government sector,” says SOLGM’s chief executive Karen Thomas. “It recognises outstanding contribution and commitment to communities. Throughout New Zealand local government professionals are working on inspiring and collaborative projects and investing in their professional development. “We are proud to acknowledge and celebrate this, and the important impact that local government professionals have on the communities we all serve.”

THE 2018 MCGREDY WINDER SOLGM LOCAL GOVERNMENT EXCELLENCE AWARDS A record number of 41 entries were received this year across a diverse range of local authority services – from harbour remediation to dog control. Waikato Regional Council took out the 2018 McGredy Winder SOLGM Local Government Excellence Awards Supreme Award for Kawe Korero which also won The Capability Group Award for Innovation in Council – Community Relations Award. Kawe Korero is the Waikato Regional Council’s te reo and tikanga Maori app for staff and elected members. Designed and built with the assistance of Kiwa Digital, the app is a practical tool to support confident engagement with Maori. Judges described Kawe Korero as fundamental to local government. “An understanding of te reo and tikanga is essential to effective partnership and good engagement with Maori,” said Raymond Horan, SOLGM’s sector improvement manager. “Kawe Korero has already received wide acclaim, and therefore the judges deemed it a deserving winner of The Capability Group Award for Innovation in Organisation and People Development and the Supreme Award.” The app can be used in any situation where employees are engaging with Maori. It is this general application and the focus on the needs of those outside council that saw this entry stand out in this category.

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The full list of winners includes: The Capability Group Award for Innovation in Organisation and People Development Waikato Regional Council for its project Kawe Korero. The judges also commended Auckland Council for its Inclusive Auckland (Diversity and Inclusion) Framework. LGFA Award for Transforming Service Delivery Jointly awarded to Whangarei District Council for its Trilogy Project (see box story) and to Wellington City Council for GoShift. BERL Award for Collaborative Government Action Environment Canterbury on behalf of the North Canterbury Transport Infrastructure Alliance, Kaikoura Harbour Remediation Project. (See box story.) The Giblin Group Award for Innovation in Council – Community Relations Kaikoura District Council for The Hospo Project – Feeding the Village (see box story). The judges also commended Ashburton District Council for Our Place. Better Regulation and Policy Award New Plymouth District Council for the Draft Digital District Plan. The judges also commended Far North District Council for Nga Kuri Auau O Kaikohe. The Minister of Local Government’s Award for Innovation in Asset Management Auckland Council for the Community Facilities Asset Management Enhancement (CFAME) Project (see box story).

The Hospo Project

Supreme Winner of the 2018 McGredy Winder SOLGM Local Government Excellence Awards. Waikato Regional Council for Kawe Korero. Blair Dickie, Neville Williams, Roger Lewis, Peter Winder (sponsor) & Ghassan Basheer.

2018 McGredy Winder SOLGM Local Government Excellence Awards Better Regulation and Policy Award Winner. New Plymouth District Council for Building a Digital District Plan. SOLGM president Phil Wilson pictured with the New Plymouth District Council team.

THE NEW ZEALAND LEG OF THE AUSTRALASIAN MANAGEMENT CHALLENGE Bay of Plenty Regional Council was the winning team in this year’s New Zealand leg of the Management Challenge sponsored in New Zealand by JLT. This year there was a hotly contested challenge with many high-calibre teams. The judges were impressed by the calm, business-like attitude and well-thought-through team management of Bay of Plenty Regional Council. The group produced high-quality reports across a number of areas, successfully using evidence-based research and information to back up their recommendations. They will go on to the Australasian finals where they will compete against the Australian state winners. Hastings District Council placed second and Otago Regional Council was third.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council: winners of the New Zealand leg of the Australasian Management Challenge.

The Feeding the Village People project was created to reinvigorate Kaikoura’s economy after the November 14, 2016, 7.8 magnitude earthquake. The project empowered 22 local businesses to work together to execute a multimillion dollar “catering service” contract. This service provided lunch and dinner to 300 construction workers at the newly-established North Canterbury Transport Infrastructure Recovery (NCTIR) village. This was a collaborative project created between the Kaikoura District Council Recovery Team, NCTIR, Compass Group, and local hospitality, transport and logistics businesses. The project began in May 2017, 26 weeks after the earthquake. At weeks 25-26, business concerns regarding funding had dramatically increased and cash flow and loss of market were main concerns for 80 percent of the hospitality businesses. Within four months of implementation, the number of hospitality businesses concerned about loss of market had dropped from 80 percent down to only 33.3 percent. The number of businesses concerned about cash flow also decreased from 80 percent down to 50 percent. This project injected approximately $12,000 a day into the Kaikoura economy (equivalent to $4.3 million per annum).

Auckland Council’s CFAME project The Community Facilities Asset Management Enhancement (CFAME) project aims to enable effective and efficient management of Auckland Council’s assets following a transfer of the asset management function of $6 billion community assets to the new Community Facilities department in November 2015. Its objective is to speed up the availability of vital information for decision-making throughout the asset lifecycle using the latest technologies and continuous innovation in advanced analytics. It comprises three phases staged over five years beginning in June 2016. Alongside other deliverables, CFAME has turned raw data into a strategic management tool. It allows for efficient collection and use of relevant asset technical performance information such as condition, asset failure and asset criticality in operational and renewal requirements. Within a short timeframe, CFAME was able to deliver a tool that enabled a better understanding of cause, effect and likelihood of asset failure that could also be used to prioritise capital programmes. It could also be used to better understand the impact of natural hazards on the facilities and how to strike a balance between asset resilience against efforts dedicated to manage growth, and maintain service levels and ageing facilities.

MAY 2018 LOCAL GOVERNMENT MAGAZINE

SOLGM 2018 SOLGM OVERSEAS MANAGER EXCHANGES Civic Financial Services Overseas Manager Exchange to the United States Sheryl Bryant, general manager, city future, Palmerston North City Council JLT Overseas Manager Exchange to British Columbia Glenn Young, utilities manager, Manawatu District Council JLT Overseas Manager Exchange to Australia Barbara Whitton, customer relationships manager, Western Bay of Plenty District Council JLT Overseas Manager Exchange to Australia (Queensland) Marianne Cavanagh, principal advisor, corporate, Whanganui District Council These exchanges, which provide managers with the opportunity to focus on development of their managerial career though a short exchange with a partner manager in another country, are made possible through the support of Civic Financial Services and JLT.

2018 SOLGM LEADERSHIP SCHOLARSHIPS The Skills Organisation Melbourne Business School Leadership Development Programme Steven May, chief executive, Wairoa District Council Leadership Development Centre (LDC) Leadership in Practice Programme Phillip Hindrup, transport services manager, Horizons Regional Council These leadership scholarships are part of SOLGM’s LGLeadershipPathways initiative that provides opportunities for local government managers to develop their leadership skills.

Kaikoura Harbour Remediation Project The 2016 North Canterbury earthquake resulted in the seabed of Kaikoura’s South Bay harbour rising by over one metre, restricting boat access to high tide which effectively rendered the harbour unusable. Fishing and marine-based tourism are the drivers of the Kaikoura economy and activities are focused at South Bay, hence rapid remediation

BROOKFIELDS EMERGING LEADER OF THE YEAR AWARD

of the harbour was critical for recovery. In an outstanding demonstration of cross-sector collaboration, local, regional and central government, iwi, the North Canterbury Transport Infrastructure Recovery (NCTIR)

This award, sponsored by Brookfields, was offered to Matt Keil, senior projects engineer – water and waste services, Southland District Council. The judges said Matt’s strong leadership attitude and mindset came through in his application. They noted his strong technical background and commitment to relationship building.

alliance and harbour operators partnered to deliver a restored and better harbour within one year. Three months on from the harbour re-opening, tour operators are fully booked, and the economic benefits are already being experienced by the community.

Whangarei District Council’s Trilogy project Trilogy began the transformation of Whangarei District Council into a ‘digital council’. The ambitious programme combined many individual components at the bleeding edge, while others were simply addressing long-standing issues. These issues had combined to increase operating costs, create capital funding deficits and meant systems couldn’t deliver the services the business demanded. Trilogy also wanted to create an environment that presented “one version of the truth, that could be looked at in different ways on any device, anytime, anywhere”. Council recognised that as one of 70-plus local authorities operating under the same legislative framework, it should implement industry-standard solutions, rather than customising software to support historic business processes or requirements unique to itself.

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This led to a fundamental choice to take applications ‘out of the box’. The ALGIM-approved records taxonomy was adopted; adapting any physical business process to conform to the software, rather than vice versa. The project prioritised the needs of the entire organisation over the wants of individual departments. This led to the adoption of enterprise systems, rather than ‘best of breed’ solutions. This, in turn, dramatically reduced cost and complexity. All applications were moved to the cloud, using ‘out of the box’ software without any customisation. New devices were provided to staff so applications are now available ‘anytime, anywhere’ via a single sign-on. Trilogy Phase 1 was completed over an 11-month period. It was delivered on time, on budget, with full functionality and without disrupting business-as-usual activity during development.

2 1. 2018 McGredy Winder SOLGM Local Government Excellence Awards. BERL Collaborative Government Action Award. Environment Canterbury for the Kaikoura Harbour Remediation Project. Sponsor Ganesh Nana of BERL, pictured with Kaikoura mayor Winston Gray. 2. 2018 McGredy Winder SOLGM Local Government Excellence Awards. The Giblin Group Innovation in Council – Community Relations Award. Kaikoura District Council for The Hospo Project: Feeding the Village People. Sheena Hamilton, mayor Winston Gray, sponsor Jenni Giblin, the Giblin Group & Mel Skinner, Kaikoura District Council.

3. 2018 McGredy Winder SOLGM Local Government Excellence Awards. Minister of Local Government Innovation in Asset Management Award. Auckland Council for Community Facilities Asset Management Enhancement (CFAME) Project. Minister for Local Government Nanaia Mahuta pictured with the Auckland Council team. 4. 2018 McGredy Winder SOLGM Local Government Excellence Awards. LGFA Transforming Service Delivery Award. Wellington City Council for GoShift; Simpler, Faster Building Consents, and Whangarei District Council for Trilogy. Sponsor Mark Butcher, LGFA, with Alan Adcock & Jo Wheat-Connolly from Whangarei District Council. 5. United States Overseas Manager Exchange sponsored by Civic Financial Services. Sponsor Ian Brown, Civic Financial Services, pictured with Sheryl Bryant, Palmerston North City Council. 6. Overseas Manager Exchanges. Sponsor Matthew Riddle, JLT, pictured with Marianne Cavanagh, Whanganui District Council, Barbara Whitton, Western Bay of Plenty Council & Glenn Young, Manawatu District Council. 7. Brookfields Emerging Leader of the Year. Matt Keil, Southland District Council, pictured with sponsor Linda O’Reilly, Brookfields Lawyers.

8. The Skills Organisation Melbourne Business School Leadership Scholarship. Steven May, chief executive, Wairoa District Council, pictured with sponsor Stephen Waters, The Skills Organisation

MAY 2018 LOCAL GOVERNMENT MAGAZINE

MANAGEMENT

MANAGEMENT CHALLENGE The best – and worst – of days SOLGM asked Ruth Le Pla to go see for herself the New Zealand heats of the Australasian Management Challenge. She came away exhausted and impressed.

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hen one team member quipped to me during a break that the Management Challenge is like the worst imaginable day at the office, he was only half joking. The Australasian Management Challenge simulates a super-charged council executive’s day on speed. It’s quick-fired and unpredictable. Teams of six to eight mid-tier council officers battle through a series of tasks that would test the mettle of far more experienced local government leaders. That’s the whole point. For years, teams have typically come from a cluster of councils centred around the Hawkes Bay / Bay of Plenty region. Their strength stems from learning from each other. The pool has gradually widened over recent years to include contestants from more far-flung areas. This year, Christchurch City Council’s ‘Rock Stars’ team, for example, fronted up for the pre-match evening function in magnificent red wigs. On the main day, team members don’t know what they will have to do, how fast or to what degree of detail. They’re observed every step of the way and their written reports are scrutinised line-by-line over the following few days. To make matters worse, some tasks overlap and conflict, scattering resources as teams subdivide into smaller units. I’ve been invited to the Silverstream Retreat in the Hutt Valley to observe – and play a small part in – the first day of this year’s New Zealand heats. The winning team from the two-day event will go forward to represent Kiwi councils at the Australasian finals in August in Canberra. This year, 15 Kiwi councils have entered teams. I’m working alongside the first eight of them. We’ve sworn not to divulge too many details about the exact mechanics of the day. That keeps any surprises fresh and alarming for the next cohort to tackle the challenge in years to come. I can divulge, however, that tasks are meant to replicate the everyday lives of senior local government officers. And I’m grateful I don’t have too many days like that. So, if that’s the worst bit, what’s the best? Well, when I talk with pretty much anyone during the challenge – and I’m given plenty of opportunities to do so – they all say how valuable the day is. For starters, it’s a heap of fun. It’s high-energy, collaborative stuff that would – imagine this – make you want to go work for a council. Read that again. Slowly. I’ve never written such a sentence before.

ROB GOLSBY For Rob Golsby, there’s no question that the Management Challenge can be transformative. A member of last year’s Tauranga City Council Blue Sky team – the team that won that year’s Kiwi heats – he’s now mentoring the new bunch of players in 2018. Tauranga City Council has a policy of creating a whole new team each year, he says. Council sees the challenge as a way to develop promising individuals – rather than just winning a competition. Although, clearly, the winning seems to happen anyway. “It’s absolutely about staff development,” he tells me when we grab a moment to talk. “It’s about individuals uncovering new skills, developing new capabilities and unleashing new strengths that they didn’t know they had.” The council also insists on putting forward crossfunctional teams. “These are people who would never normally work together on a day-to-day basis,” says Rob. “One of the great outcomes of the process is that we form these really close teams.” Councils call for volunteers who are then screened for three criteria: how committed they are to the programme; their availability; and the extent to which they would add to that cross-functional blend. Team members are usually selected five months before the challenge takes place, take part in multiple practice runs and even join teams from nearby councils for a mock challenge day. Rob suggests it would also be worthwhile for councils to consider how they could capture the energy of the event throughout the rest of the year. “This is my first job in local government,” he tells me. “I’ve been at Tauranga City Council for two years and worked in the commercial sector for about 18 years before that. The challenge is by far the most effective development programme that I’ve ever been involved in anywhere.” The benefit, he says, stems from learning new skills over such a long period of time. “You’re constantly working on them so they become ingrained in your way of thinking. That really sticks with you.”

The New Zealand leg of the Australasian Management Challenge Bay of Plenty Regional Council was the winning team in this year’s New Zealand leg of the Management Challenge sponsored in New Zealand by JLT.

MAY 2018 LOCAL GOVERNMENT MAGAZINE

MANAGEMENT CHALLENGE

GLENN SNELGROVE

CASHY BALL

It’s the end of a long day. Contestants gather for a final group session and Glenn Snelgrove throws out a challenge of his own making. It’s nothing, and yet everything, to do with the day’s activities. Glenn is chief facilitator, aka judge cum moderator, for the New Zealand leg of the Australasian Management Challenge. He’s been involved since 2011 and has been running the show this side of the Tasman for the past five years. Glenn is the guy who makes sure due process is followed, teams are treated evenly and fairly, and in the following days gets stuck in marking the written material from the teams. He challenges any young person thinking of local government as a career to face up to a critical step change. “You have to start thinking of your customers, your ratepayers, in a very different way,” he urges. “You have to think about enriching their lives. “Imagine I’m a customer waking up in the morning and council texts me saying there are roadworks on SH86, here’s an alternative route. That will enrich my life. It will stop me being in a road jam.” He urges team members to think forward to 2030. “What we are doing today is not what communities will want in the future. “Start thinking as though you’re the customer. “Consultation is a statutory process: it’s not a community process,” he says. “The auditors make you tick boxes. Think outside the boxes.”

Cashy Ball, mentor for the Whakatane District Council Putauaki Players team, wants to bottle the energy from each challenge day and unleash it into council’s everyday activities. This is the fifth year in a row that Whakatane District Council has entered a team and Cashy’s third appearance: once as a team member and twice as a mentor. She’s council’s manager strategy and community development and last year won the Brookfield’s Emerging Leader of the Year Award at SOLGM’s big awards bash. “This year’s team is a young, enthusiastic, energetic, bright bunch of people,” she tells me. “They’re innovative and they’ve got ideas. So, when we go back to work I’d like to look at how they can stay together as a team – either just them or working with the alumni.” Like several other regular entrants to the challenge, Whakatane District Council has created an alumni group for previous contestants. Cashy suggests there may be benefit in challenge contestants working as an ongoing sounding board or innovation team within council. “A lot of them have only within the last year started working at council,” she says. “So, they bring a lot of knowledge and expertise from a non-local government perspective. We can only learn from that and the diversity that different people bring.” Such moves could mean the challenge may not only benefit individuals and standalone councils but the sector as a whole. Let’s face it, local government doesn’t have a great rep for being young and innovative, energetic and exciting. “But it can be,” says Cashy.

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MIKE MAGUIRE “In over 40 years in local government – and well over 20 of those years in senior management and leadership roles – this is the one programme I’ve seen that provides opportunities to expose people to what it’s like to be a leader in local government.” So says Mike Maguire who has been involved in the management challenge in one way or another for some 12 years now. He mentored teams from Hastings District Council for around eight years and this time around bears a badge saying ‘observer’. As far as I can fathom, to all intents and purposes that means ‘judge’ but the titles are a little confusing sometimes. Mike says most mid-tier council officers who take part in the challenge “come out the other end fit to be leaders”. “They learn enough skills and personal development to be better at their jobs. They’ve seen more about the real problems in local government and have developed the skills to work across their organisation with people from different backgrounds and different discipline sets, and understand how to work together. “If someone walked in the door and said, ‘what could I do to be better?’ I’d say, ‘get yourself on the Management Challenge’.”

Moving right along with the good stuff, team members look for the best potential in each other. Many teams sellotape up hand-made posters stating their values. They espouse supportive concepts like ‘work hard: be humble’, ‘there is something good in every day’ and ‘be the best version of you’. But the best is hearing stories of how individuals have blossomed over the previous months spent preparing for the challenge. Mid-tier council officers who were once too timid to speak up are now up on their hind legs debating, presenting and sharing their views. Accounting geeks tell the funniest jokes. Comms people have learnt to count. Ok, now I’m getting carried away. Chief facilitator (aka judge cum moderator) Glenn Snelgrove pushes the point that it costs just $5600 (plus GST) to register a team which equates to around $933 per participant and, as such, offers the best value-for-money training anywhere in local government. In fairness, many others echo this sentiment unprompted throughout the day. And my small part in the proceedings? I got to role-play a pushy, testy journalist – a role that wasn’t too far removed from real life. As Miranda’s mother would say, “Such fun”. LG

50 TOWNS ON A WIN! Kaikohe, Oamaru and Hokitika have brought to 50 the number of towns in the NZMCA’s Motorhome Friendly town network, which is providing a healthy boost to tourism spending in the regions. As Motorhome Friendly, the destinations offer a warm welcome to Motorhome Tourists with an appropriate freedom camping bylaw and a suitable level of facilities. In return, the NZMCA encourages its 80,000-plus members to stop, stay and spend in the Motorhome Friendly towns by promoting local attractions and events – all at no cost to the towns involved. It’s a win/win for all 50 towns involved. To find out how becoming Motorhome Friendly can benefit your community, call Gillian Rutherford today.

New Zealand Motor Caravan Association | 09 298 5466 | www.mhftowns.com | www.nzmca.org.nz

MAY 2018 LOCAL GOVERNMENT MAGAZINE

THREE WATERS

Mariner Rise Where ecology, children and stormwater meet

A small piece of open land on Whangaparaoa Peninsula, north of Auckland, serves the very different needs of a community, ecologists and council’s stormwater management responsibilities.

t isn’t always easy to balance a growing city’s need for increased housing density with the desire to provide recreational amenities for those new residents – and be mindful of the ecological imperatives. But when public and private stakeholders from all sides work together, the results speak for themselves. And, with a bit of creative thinking, a relatively small plot of land can deliver tremendous outcomes on all fronts. A 2700 square metre piece of open space on Whangaparaoa Peninsula, north of Auckland, is a case in point. To residents of the nearby Mariner Rise residential development, it’s a pretty bit of wetland greenspace just outside the windows, and a pleasant walk through to the nearby bus stop. For the neighbourhood children, it’s the opportunity for natural outdoor play. It’s also a flood and stormwater retention basin, and part of a larger stream restoration project that will bring ongoing ecological and community benefits. “It’s the gift that keeps on giving,” says Julia Parfitt, chairperson of the Hibiscus and Bays Local Board. The land, just off Whangaparaoa Road above Arkles Bay on the southern side of the peninsula, had long been mown as an ad-hoc reserve, and was zoned for residential use. There were two stormwater drains running through the space to deal with nearby road and residential run-off. In 2009, the then-Rodney District Council approved the

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land for sale subject to further public consultation; and in 2014 options for the layout of the development were presented to the local community, iwi and Hibiscus and Bays Local Board. Auckland Council Property (now Panuku Development Auckland) received feedback from the local community about what they wanted to see and what they were concerned about. This was incorporated into a plan that – along with residential development – resulted in the creation of a reserve with an adjacent wetland to address stormwater management. “A big piece of the puzzle was a desire expressed by mana whenua for fauna to be protected and relocated as part of the project development outcomes. They wanted to be confident that the quality of water moving through the area would be improved,” says Allan Young, development director at Panuku. In July 2016, resource consent was granted to McConnell Property to deliver 60 two-, three-, and four-bedroom homes, along with the wetland reserve and playground. The site presented challenges, as it sits at a confluence of streams where flooding needs to be managed to protect the nearby homes. The project included retention of the two existing streams (one permanent and one intermittent), as well as a new stream diversion within the reserve, which also functions as a flood retention basin. “In many ways, the reserve site was a hole in the ground,” says landscape architect Mark Lewis, of Boffa Miskell. “But there are views of the distant ocean from the top edges; and

at the bottom, the two streams come together and create an island. So, it presented an opportunity to make something quite interesting, in terms of an outdoor area where kids could explore and interact with the wetland and stream environment.” It was important to Julia Parfitt that, along with water management, the site delivered some form of open space. “The community perceived that, although it was good to have the greater housing options that development brings, there was an overall loss of greenspace.” Transforming the reserve from a grass slope with streams and a few mature trees to an amenity for the community first involved dealing with the ecology. As part of the stream restoration, fish and lizards were surveyed and relocated, and the wetlands were planted to bring birds into the reserve and provide habitat for insects and lizards. Stream-margin sedges and wetland rushes were used along the water’s edge. Where the streams meet, they form an island which can be seen from the banks on either side. The space can be also viewed from the surrounding houses, a community building and bus stop; as well as by children walking to and from school. Julia wanted to be sure the playground catered to the children who passed through the space on their way to the bus and to school. “My experience has been that playground designs tend to cater for very young children. So, they often are a space that older primary- and intermediate-school-aged children find boring. I like the way the designers looked at the demographics – which showed that most of the kids were eight years old, and up – and they made a place for them.” This recreation space uses the water as a feature to cater to those slightly older kids – it allows them to use their imagination and to interact with nature. Play items were placed on the island to draw children into the space, with many differently challenging ways for adults and children to reach the island: across boardwalks, or scrambling over logs and stepping stones. “Not long after the playground opened, a concerned neighbour rang our office and reported that the local kids were playing in the stream and moving some of the rocks,” says

McConnell Property’s development manager Matt Anderson. Far from being concerned, Matt took the call as a positive sign. “It was always the intention that this would be a place where kids can get their feet wet and their hands dirty. If they’re playing in the stream, that tells me that we’ve got it right – the kids feel like it’s their space to explore.” Allan Young has another story that underlines the unexpected benefits of the project’s successful integration of ecological considerations. “One of the best outcomes of the project we noticed while on a site visit. A civil contractor found an eel on another part of the site. With part of the stream restored, he was able to collect the eel and move it to a place where it was out of harm’s way.” The retention of the streams and the diversion at Mariner Rise form part of a mitigation transaction that will result in the daylighting of a waterway at nearby Stanmore Bay. An historical stream running through D’Oyly Reserve will be returned from an underground pipe to a more natural state. This will support plant life, provide a haven for birds, improve the passage for fish, and act as a natural filter to prevent pollutants from reaching the sea. D’Oyly Reserve backs onto Stanmore Bay School so potential for future development exists within this project such as outdoor classrooms, cycle- and walkways, and additional play areas. Mark Lewis says, “It’s quite a long stream connecting various communities, so rather than doing these mitigation and remediation projects piecemeal, there’s substantially more ecological benefit by treating it holistically.” Along with the recreational and ecological benefits, the professional and cross-community relationships that have come out of this project have carried through to other aspects of the community. “Procuring the plants locally, and using local vendors and contractors has been very important,” says Julia. “The project is an example of the benefits that can come from various parts of Auckland Council working together with a private business. Channels have opened up – quite literally, in terms of the waterways – but also between stakeholders, community groups and the companies that have helped make this happen. LG

MAY 2018 LOCAL GOVERNMENT MAGAZINE

THREE WATERS

Water New Zealand’s National Performance Review A benchmarking tool reveals big differences in councils’ approaches to water, says Lesley Smith.

e require a lot from our water systems. They need to protect public health and the environment, be reliable, resilient, resource-efficient, economically-sustainable and responsive to customers. These performance aspects are the focus of Water New Zealand’s National Performance Review, an annual benchmark of drinking water, wastewater and stormwater service delivery around the country. The latest National Performance Review (NPR) has just been published and it shows a wide range of differences between councils over their approach to matters such as stormwater consents and climate change preparedness. The NPR is a voluntary initiative, developed in conjunction with, and primarily for, water managers. The report covers 44 council and council controlled organisations, whose jurisdictions cover just shy of 90 percent of New Zealand’s population. Council managers, communications and finance staff, councillors, and members of the public with an interest in water issues, will also find it a useful resource.

EVOLVING TRENDS & NEW FOCUS Performance indicators applying to the core aspect of service provision are included every year (see figure “Aspects of service provision”). These provide a comprehensive snapshot of evolving trends in the sector since 2007/08. New in 2016/17 was information on sector staffing, emergency planning, climate change preparedness, stormwater

Aspects of service provision

discharge consenting and sewage containment. These revealed a number of issues that Water New Zealand is working with its members and stakeholders to address.

Stormwater discharge consents The growing concerns around freshwater quality and the need for stormwater quality improvements and associated consents to drive improvements is becoming a big focus for regional councils. The report shows that the approach to consenting stormwater systems is highly variable. Some networks hold consents for all stormwater discharges, others have no consents at all, and there is a broad range in between.

Sector staffing The Havelock North inquiry heard concerns about water sector staff capability and capacity. The sector has been concerned about this for some time. The NPR report found a vacancy rate of nearly 10 percent for roles in drinking water services. While most participants (78 percent) do have performance improvement plans in place, an average of only $1797 is budgeted for water staff training.

Emergency management Most authorities have emergency management plans. However, the nature of events planned for varies enormously. Councils do not always plan for events such as water supply interruptions or contamination. There is a lot to be gained by

Water New Zealand: Public Health and Environmental Protection PUBLIC HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION The number of participants employing stormwater management options

379%

Treated

458,461,109

increase of wet weather overflows compared to the previous year

cubic meters

27 Filtration Over

of water operators issued boiled water notices

Gross Pollutant Traps

Biofiltration

31 16

wastewater treatment plants are operating on expired discharge consents

Rain Gardens

Rainwater Detention/Retention Tank

121 182 233 Vegetative Filters1 • Wetlands2 Water Quality Ponds3 Figures relate to National Performance Review participants supplying data, for the year 2016/17 financial year

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local authorities sharing information on the plans they have in place. Water New Zealand will be working with its members to assist in this.

NATIONAL PERFORMANCE REVIEW 2016-2017

Climate change preparedness

VOLUME 1: NATIONAL OVERVIEW

Accessing and using information in the report The National Performance Review report is broken into two volumes. The first provides a national overview of performance, showing broad industry trends and changes from previous years. The second volume provides a comparison across participant systems. Drinking water, wastewater and stormwater system performance are influenced by a myriad of factors. These include: • climate (affecting water usage patterns and pipe deterioration); • the quality and availability of water sources (affecting both water and wastewater treatment requirements); • topography (affecting pumping needs and flooding); and • demography (affecting customer expectations and funding). This means it is not often meaningful to compare performance across all participant systems. In response to this, Water New Zealand has developed an online data portal. The tool allows users to compare the performance of selected authorities likely to be operating in comparable environments. Reports can then be run, to export relevant performance comparisons in a range of formats. In the past, users have used these performance comparisons to inform infrastructure plans, council reports and communications campaigns. Both volumes of the report and the data portal are available at: www.waternz.org.nz/NationalPerformanceReview

In high-level planning documents almost all participants identified climate change as a risk to the delivery of their services. However, few have detailed projections to use as the basis for their design assumptions. For those that do, information sources and projections vary enormously. For example, turn of the century sea level rise projections varied from 0.5 to 1.6 metres. To this end, the subsequently released Ministry for the Environment, Coastal Hazards and Climate Change guidance for local government is an essential resource. Further information is still needed to guide decision-making related to changes in rainfall.

Sewage containment Incidences of sewage overflows into the environment, related to water entering the sewer in wet weather, increased by 379 percent from the previous year. Given the weather in 2016/17, this should be no surprise. Spring of 2016 was wetter than normal, and autumn of 2017 was the wettest on record for parts of the country. Stories of closed beaches in Auckland dominated the media. But the report shows that wet weather sewage overflows are far from an Auckland-only issue. When it rains, additional water makes its way into the sewerage system, referred to as inflow and infiltration. The report shows that in wet weather events, a number of networks have sewage flows more than 10 times their dry weather volumes. The report highlights a range of plans local authorities have in place for addressing this issue. It also looks at what standards are in place for sewage containment, showing that many have yet to adopt standards which would help set levelof-service expectations around wet weather overflows. LG • Lesley Smith is technical coordinator at Water New Zealand. lesley.smith@waternz.org.nz

CCNZ REPRESENTS NEW ZEALAND’S CIVIL and GENERAL CONTRACTING INDUSTRY We provide a forum for Councils to connect with their local contractors around issues such as procurement, health and safety, forward work planning and sustainability.

For contact details for your local CCNZ Branch go to www.nzcontractors.co.nz or

Phone 0800 692 376

MAY 2018 LOCAL GOVERNMENT MAGAZINE

SPECIAL FEATURE

Smart solutions

Stormwater management

Recent extreme weather events have once again raised debate about the best ways to ensure resilient and affordable stormwater management. Meanwhile, Patricia Moore reports that water sensitive urban design will become a more mainstream practice when the tangible benefits are better analysed and communicated.

orget the grey – think green. Water sensitive urban design (WSUD) puts the spotlight on natural landscape and systems, rather than traditional pipes and culverts. And it is changing the way local authorities manage the challenges brought by a combination of issues including ageing infrastructure, intense weather events and limited funding. In Auckland, the drivers are growth and the requirements of the Unitary Plan with assistance from Auckland Council Guidelines (GD01 & GD04). WSUD is fast becoming mainstream practice, says Tim Fisher, Tonkin + Taylor’s executive leader – engineering and principal water engineer. “The Special Housing Areas have also given WSUD a significant boost. But for WSUD to become mainstream elsewhere, local governments will need to set up policy / planning frameworks to support it. “More New Zealand research and case studies are needed to give developers, designers and councils the confidence to use WSUD in other regions.” That’s a point reinforced by Harrison Grierson’s Michael Chapman, principal, team leader – water resources. “A growing number of robust and thorough cost-benefit examples

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will mean the industry can start embedding WSUD earlier in the design process.” He sees uptake as “very much an evolutionary process” and inherent in the concept of water sensitive design. “The philosophy,” he says, “will take time to evolve and mature as an emerging science. I think it will become mainstream as society in general moves towards designing systems that are regenerative rather than degenerative.” GHD’s technical director – water, Vijesh Chandra, says change will happen when the tangible benefits are better analysed, realised and communicated. “It will then become a priority rather than being implemented as part of regulatory requirements. It should be prioritised, as it provides an opportunity to improve receiving environment water quality while achieving social and cultural objectives.” But, while WSUD is a better solution to reducing stormwater impacts, and one that’s gaining momentum worldwide, there are barriers slowing implementation, says James Reddish, principal environmental engineer with WSP Opus. He lists: establishing policy supported by a strong evidence base; understanding costs; quantifying the non-economic

Left: Artistic impression of potential water sensitive urban design at the Avon River Precinct in Christchurch.

benefits (cultural, social and environmental); raising awareness and recognising the need for education and training; and clarifying issues around potential changes of ownership and operation through the assets’ lifecycle. Meanwhile, Tim says some of the best WSUD is coming from public / private collaboration. “Ellerslie’s planned Element apartment complex, on which Tonkin + Taylor is working, is a good example. Element is driven by private investment but has been strongly enabled by Auckland Council. “WSUD has allowed us to reduce stormwater discharges and potable water demand, reducing the impacts on infrastructure.” James adds that although much of WSUD is delivered through land development, there are many examples of successful council initiatives. These include Auckland’s Daldy and Halsey Street redevelopment and the Avon River Precinct / Te Papa Otakaro, the first anchor project for the Canterbury Earthquake Authority. “However, small projects such as the Kowhai Reserve in Warkworth are just as important to demonstrate what is achievable.”

WASTEWATER OVERFLOWS While ‘extreme’ weather events serve to highlight the inadequacies of current stormwater systems, it’s been reported that if there are more than five millimetres of rain in Auckland, combined storm and wastewater pipes contribute to overflows at 41 points around the Waitemata Harbour. So should technology, such as low-cost internet of things water level meters and sensors connected via a low-power wide-area network (LPWAN), be playing a greater role in monitoring and managing such situations? It’s not just an Auckland problem, says Clint Cantrell, Tonkin + Taylor’s water sector director. “There are wastewater overflows in just about every sewer system around New Zealand. While overflows commonly serve an important function to protect against sewage backups onto properties, it’s important to understand and manage the risk of effects on agreed community waterway uses and outcomes. “Real-time monitoring of the overflows can provide a very useful tool in terms of assessing and managing the risk of effects. Clint notes that the cost of real-time monitoring has come down substantially in the past decade. “So utilities should be reviewing and assessing the use of a wider deployment of monitors to aid in better real-time risk management, improve proactive operational response measures, and to support development of more optimised longterm risk reduction measures.”

UNDERSTANDING CATCHMENTS Vijesh points out that access to technology is not the problem. “Unfortunately, whatever technology is used you’ll still find most of our receiving environments are polluted.

1. Tim Fisher, Tonkin + Taylor, executive leader – engineering and principal water engineer. 2. Vijesh Chandra, GHD, technical director – water. 3. James Reddish, WSP Opus, principal environmental engineer. 4. Clint Cantrell, Tonkin + Taylor, water sector director.

“What’s needed is strong leadership that will deliver results in a short timeframe. The proposed water quality tax is a great start; something that should have been initiated 20 years ago.” Tim Fisher notes that the sector also faces issues in marrying the demands of the National Policy Statement for Urban Development Capacity (NPS-UDC) with the need to provide smart solutions for stormwater systems. “NPS-UDC is about urban development which is as much about provision of infrastructure as it is about houses and commercial buildings,” he says. “WSUD can help urban development in both the greenfield and brownfield contexts by reducing the size of new stormwater infrastructure or the upgrading of existing infrastructure and redistributing the costs for stormwater management.” The answer, says Vijesh, is a whole-of-catchment approach. “It’s a smart solution and all that’s necessary to meet the requirements of the NPS-UDC. The challenges are not in the technical area but more in strategic leadership. “The current piecemeal approach within a catchment doesn’t have real benefit to water quality when, and where, it actually matters – that is, right now and where you put your head into water.” Michael notes that is it essential to understand each catchment. “Rather than covering the land with impervious areas then piping runoff from those areas to nice-looking wetlands at the bottom of each sub-catchment, we need to understand the catchment and place wetlands only where they would naturally occur and therefore where they are easier to design and engineer.” The good news is a desire in the industry to address existing barriers to the wider implementation of WSUD, reports James. “Importantly, it requires courage from decision-makers, designers and developers. “If we can collectively learn from mistakes, and share data and good practice, implementation will be faster and more successful.” LG • Patricia Moore is a freelance writer. mch@xtra.co.nz

COMING UP

In the JUNE issue

SMART SOLUTIONS • Planning • GIS and spatial technology MAY 2018 LOCAL GOVERNMENT MAGAZINE

SPECIAL FEATURE

Smart solutions

Parks & recreation management A move towards more individual sporting activities, and an increased focus on smart technologies and the needs of people with disabilities: These are just some of the changes at play for council parks and recreation management specialists. Patricia Moore takes a walk in the park.

Wheelchair press, GymGuru.

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urveys, such as those carried out by Sport New Zealand, indicate Kiwis are moving away from structured sports leagues in favour of less formal recreational activities. Walking, swimming, cycling, jogging and running top the list and frequently happen in council-managed parks, recreation and aquatic centres. It’s a shift driven by population growth, shrinking backyards, and recognition that regular exercise is a huge contributor to the health and wellbeing of the population. Karl Nesbitt, parks and open spaces programme manager at the New Zealand Recreation Association (NZRA), says the relationship of older people to places and spaces is also having an impact. “This is influencing design with attention being given to accessible walkways and seating in parks, and hydrotherapy pools in swimming complexes.” Council-owned recreational facilities need to measure up, using smart solutions to provide the amenities required, while at the same time ensuring ratepayers are not burdened with the cost of upkeep.

Left: Spit Reserve, native tree planting volunteer day.

GymGuru’s Brett Forsyth believes communities want “more enticing facilities which last longer and cost less”. He points out that with parks becoming destinations for entire families to access recreation facilities, the challenge for councils and communities is providing facilities that cater for “a hugely diverse range of needs and wants”. Mike Henton, GM at software providers Jonas Leisure, sees increased demand for council facilities as a good thing: “But only if the facilities can meet the demand.” He says the smart management solutions lie with technology. “Data on participation and facility use, as well as issues preventing people participating, will be a major factor in helping councils gauge where to put their resources, while increased efficiency can help keep costs down. “Councils should be looking at how technology can be used to improve the built environment. Can it be used to improve access for the elderly or people with mobility impairments? Can it improve the user experience while also reducing the amount of work for staff?” Mike cites access gates at aquatic facilities as an example. “Wheelchair-accessible entrance control gates that interface with facility-management software allow people to check themselves in using membership cards and take the strain off staff at the front desk.” He says there are also wider implications. “Good software does what you want it to do, in fewer steps. Enrolling people is less complicated, allowing staff to focus on individuals and personal contact. It also provides insights and intelligence to guide decision-making, enabling councils to base their programmes on facts, reducing their vulnerability to subjective criticism.” Nige Cottingham is executive general manager – strategy, marketing and business development, with Citycare Property, one of the leading facilities and open spaces maintenance (FM & OSM) providers to local government. “The challenge for us,” he says, “is managing the growing desire and implicit requirement for both emerging technology disruptors, such as autonomous mowers and viable internet of things [IoT] opportunities, and the maturing social evolution which sees ratepayers more conscious than ever before of where their money is being spent.” Nige says Citycare is responding to this changing landscape by bundling its services. “We’re bringing FM and OSM teams under one service delivery roof. In addition, we’ve directed some proof of concept activity in the IoT space, looking specifically at sensor devices in order to drive future operational advantages or efficiencies.” Smart solutions continue to emerge. Mike says Jonas Leisure recently introduced updates to its Envibe leisure management software. “One of the significant additions is the ability for customers to view availability and book classes and spaces at leisure and recreation centres, directly online,” he says. And Karl reports use of the Yardstick suite of benchmarking tools is enabling organisations to compare and measure performance against others in the industry. On the equipment front, GymGuru recently released a solution addressing the needs of the disability community.

2 1. Karl Nesbitt, NZRA. 2. Mike Henton, Jonas Leisure.

Brett says his company saw that exercise opportunities for wheelchair users have often involved equipment that’s cumbersome and difficult to use. “We came up with a combination wheelchair press, bicep curl and squat: a unit that’s not only for wheelchair users but can also be used as a regular squat and bicep curl. It’s a truly multi-use, three-in-one, item that provides councils with more cost-effective equipment.” He adds a number of councils have already installed the unit. And councils using smarter park management are now having their initiatives recognised with the introduction of the Green Flag Award. So far, 16 parks have been awarded a ‘Green Flag’, an international standard which, Karl says, “brings with it a vast amount of prestige”. Judging critiques eight criteria including cleanliness, sustainability and community involvement. Looking ahead, Nige envisages more community involvement in service areas that Citycare manages. “To this end, we’ll shortly be launching a new Community Guardians Scheme that will see Citycare as the facilitators and / or enablers of a wide range of community motivated events.” (Citycare recently provided equipment, machinery, traffic and safety management for over 800 volunteers from the Student Volunteer Army in Christchurch who came together to clean up what Nige says is a “growing environmental challenge” at Godley Head.) Karl also sees more community and volunteer involvement within the sector and suggests this could include community partnerships around management of maintenance services or facilitation. Wairoa, the “Outdoors Capital of Aotearoa”, is an example of a smaller council already thinking along these lines. Wairoa District Council partnered with Adventure Wairoa, a collaboration of local sports bodies, to create and run the Wairoa Mountain-Bike Park, a recreational facility it’s believed could bring “an economy spike” to the area by attracting visitors as well as locals. The council-owned site offers mountain-bikers a range of challenges on a seven kilometre trail, plus the bonus of views to one of the region’s other attractions – Rocket Lab launches at Mahia. Mayor Craig Little says council welcomed the opportunity to work with Adventure Wairoa: “Why wouldn’t we? They’re promoting Wairoa so, as a council, we did everything we could to make it happen.” LG • Patricia Moore is a freelance writer. mch@xtra.co.nz

MAY 2018 LOCAL GOVERNMENT MAGAZINE

SARAH MACKY / ON LEGAL ISSUES SARAH MACKY, H EAN EY & PARTN E R S. sarah.macky@heaneypartners.com

Shadowclad & councils Third-party claims and 10-year limitation periods tested in court.

I JUDGES WILL OFTEN ERR ON THE SIDE OF CAUTION WHEN DEALING WITH STRIKEOUT APPLICATIONS.

n 2013, the Ministry of Education (MOE) sued Carter Holt Harvey (CHH) over 833 school buildings built using CHH’s Shadowclad exterior cladding product. MOE alleges Shadowclad is a defective product and claims for remedial costs to repair the school buildings. In 2013, CHH filed third-party proceedings against 54 councils. CHH alleged that the councils were responsible because defective building practices had been used during construction which was the cause of MOE’s losses (MOE claim). CHH did not serve the councils with the third-party claim until three years later. The reason for the late service was because CHH had sought to strike out the MOE claim against it. Had CHH been successful with its strike-out application, there would then have been no need to pursue the claims against the councils. CHH’s strike-out application was unsuccessful. As a precaution, in 2016 CHH filed a separate proceeding against the 54 councils naming them as defendants (CHH claim). In December 2016, CHH served the 54 councils with the MOE claim and the CHH claim. In 2017, the councils brought a strike-out application which included the following grounds: • That the councils were prejudiced as a result of the excessive delay in serving the MOE claim; and • That some of the claims for the schools in the MOE claim were brought more than 10 years after the code compliance certificates had been issued. There is a high threshold to get over when making a strike-out application. Judges will often err on the side of caution when dealing with strike-out applications, often dismissing them in favour of the claim being resolved in the context of a full trial after the evidence has been heard and tested.

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In regard to CHH’s delay of three years in serving the MOE claim, the councils argued that in respect of some of the claims, the 10year limitation period had expired, meaning the councils could not bring claims against the parties responsible for carrying out the allegedly defective building work. CHH argued that the 10-year limitation period did not apply to claims for contribution and as such the councils could still bring claims against the building parties. CHH argued that its claims for contribution against the councils was a statutory cause of action and not a cause of action arising out of building work. CHH said that meant the 10-year-long stop limitation period in the Building Act 2004 did not apply. The court rejected CHH’s argument that the 10-year limitation did not apply. It found that the claim by CHH against the councils did arise out of building work. The court then went on to consider whether the three-year delay in serving the MOE claim was so prejudicial that the claims ought to be struck out. The court accepted the councils suffered some prejudice. However, only six percent of the claims against the councils had become 10 years time-barred between the date the MOE claim was filed and when it was served. The court considered the prejudice fell well below the threshold required to strike out the MOE claim. While the threshold to surmount when bringing strike-out applications is high as was demonstrated by this decision, the councils did succeed in having some of the claims for some of the school buildings struck out. This was because the court found that the 10-year-long stop limitation applied so it was prepared to strike out claims for school buildings where the code compliance certificate was issued more than 10 years prior to the MOE claim being filed in December 2013. The decision has not been appealed. LG

PETER SILCOCK / FROM CIVIL CONTRACTORS NZ CH I E F EXECUTIVE, CIVI L CONTRACTOR S N EW Z EALAN D. peter@civilcontractors.co.nz

Land transport policy signals New GPS creates opportunities to bring forward work.

T WE URGENTLY NEED SOME CONSTRUCTIONREADY JOBS TO BE BROUGHT FORWARD.

he recently-released draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS) creates some great opportunities but also some major challenges for local government. The draft signals a major increase in central government investment in local and regional projects where local government is required to fund a share. The GPS guides the expenditure of about $4 billion through the National Land Transport Fund (NLTF) each year. Over the next three years (2018/19 to 2020/21) the proposed upper funding levels in the following activity classes increase by $300 million or 25 percent overall. A breakdown of these figures shows an increase of 96 percent for local road improvements from $230 million to $450 million. For regional road improvements, there is an increase of 50 percent from $140 million to $210 million. Although, for local road maintenance there is a two percent decrease from $720 million to $710 million. If we hit those maximum levels and add in the historical 50 percent local government funding, we will see an additional $600 million spent on our local and regional roads. With debt caps and resistance to rates rises, the big question is where will local government get its additional $300 million share? The issue of Funding Assistance Rates which are set by the NZ Transport Agency (not by the GPS) is mentioned in the GPS Q&A sheet. It states there that the new priorities “create an expectation for greater expenditure from activities where local government is required to provide a share”. It goes on to say “the NZTA is considering how to support the government’s new priorities”. Adjusting the Funding Assistance Rate is one option. But the GPS also flags that the new Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) can be used to: • provide a top-up of local share for projects that will receive funding from the NLTF, but where local councils are financially constrained; • bring forward projects which are not priorities

for NLTF investment, but are strategically important to a region’s productivity potential; and • fund projects outside of the scope for NLTF investment, but which contribute to the objectives sought through the PGF and are aligned with the region’s transport strategy. Importantly, any transport project needs to be referenced in a Regional Land Transport Plan (RLTP) for it to be considered for funding from either the NLTF and / or the PGF. Councils are due to submit their RLTPs to the Transport Agency by June 30, 2018, so that these can be considered for inclusion in the National Land Transport Plan (NLTP). With the new funding availability signalled in the GPS and the PGF opening its doors, it doesn’t leave much time for councils to fully scope and plan the expanded programme of work. I hope that in the rush to meet these tight deadlines, engagement with the local contracting community is not overlooked. Contractors are certainly nervous about the construction gap created by the new government’s change of direction. No new programmes of any size, except for the Manawatu Gorge replacement, have progressed over the past eight months. And it takes years for any new project to navigate the maze of funding, financing, engineering, public consultation, land acquisitions, consenting and procurement. We urgently need some construction-ready jobs to be brought forward to fill the gap so that we can retain our construction capacity and capability to deliver our future infrastructure programme. I find encouraging statements in the Q&A section of the GPS. “Transport Agency’s regional teams will work closely with their local government partners to understand how the changes will affect their communities and explore the opportunities the draft GPS presents to bring forward other programmes of work for 2018-21 NLTP funding, particularly public transport, and cycling and walking.” LG

MAY 2018 LOCAL GOVERNMENT MAGAZINE

DAVE CULL / FROM LGNZ PR ESI DE NT, LOCAL G OVE R N M E NT N EW Z EALAN D (LG NZ). mayor@dcc.govt.nz

LGNZ releases Water 2050 paper A fit-for-purpose water policy framework is vital.

L IF ANY NEW STANDARDS ARE SET, COUNCILS AND THE GOVERNMENT NEED TO UNDERSTAND WHAT THE COSTS WILL BE.

ocal Government New Zealand (LGNZ) has released the first of several discussion papers that voice the need for integrated water policy across allocation, water quality, infrastructure, cost and funding as well as an overarching governance framework for central and local government. These areas represent the five key workstreams to the Water 2050 project and follow-on from LGNZ’s earlier 3 Waters project. In November 2017, the government’s inquiry into the contamination of Havelock North drinking water found that the present system of regulation does not guarantee clean drinking water and concluded that a dedicated drinking water regulator is needed. As a result, LGNZ has initially focused its governance workstream on likely changes to the regulation of drinking water and, in particular, on the details of what fit-for-purpose drinking water regulation could look like. As councils consult on their long term plans they, too, are likely to be considering future challenges including rising standards and compliance with higher drinking water standards. LGNZ’s work concludes that if any new standards are set, councils and the government need to understand what the costs will be to meet these, how they might be paid for and whether we have the range of funding tools needed. Similarly, meeting the costs to improve water quality represents major challenges for regional and territorial councils, stakeholders and communities. Recent work by central and local government has gone some way toward quantifying the cost of improving the ‘swimmability’ of our waterways. LGNZ’s newly-completed paper Water 2050: Governance – A better framework for drinking water regulation, is the first of a series of reports as part of its Water 2050 project.

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These reports have been undertaken to inform discussion between our members and with central government. The first report outlines what effective drinking water governance and regulation could look like and proposes: • A co-governance model that would bring together the information held by central government with the knowledge of local issues held by local government and the technical insights of suppliers and assessors; • The co-governance entity would continuously evaluate and recommend to the minister changes to drinking water standards and mandatory processes; • The enforcement of the standards by a regulator which is independent from the body that sets policy; and • Replacing the current ‘principles-based’ approach with an outcome or performancebased form of regulation. The stage two report looks at the detailed design for a co-regulatory model for drinking water. This work is underway and will be released in the coming months. Councils are committed to valuing and managing water as a precious resource. The quality of our water and its abundance is fundamental to the social, cultural, economic and environmental wellbeing of New Zealand. LGNZ continues to recognise that change is needed to ensure councils can continue to deliver high quality drinking water. Water 2050 seeks a fit-for-purpose policy framework for the future which considers freshwater quality and quantity: including standards, freshwater management, impacts on rural and urban areas, such as infrastructure requirements and associated funding, and quantity issues including rights and allocation. For more information please visit: bit.ly/Water2050_Project LG

Urgency needed for a collaborative approach to climate change Central and local government need to work together to put in place a clear plan for climate change that considers adaptation alongside mitigation. The Government will soon begin consultation on the Zero Carbon Bill, including conversations with communities about the potential target to reduce New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, how we get there and the role of the independent Climate Change Commission, before the Bill is introduced next year. Local government has an important role to play in conversations and decisions about the place of adaptation in the Zero Carbon Act, including what agency or mechanisms should be adopted to carry out that work. A report recently released by the new Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Simon Upton, calls for a more structured and longterm approach to climate change, and includes a number of important recommendations, many of which LGNZ support. A Zero Carbon Act for New Zealand: Revisiting Stepping stones to Paris and beyond says New Zealand needs to move on from a stop/start approach to climate change, a position long held by LGNZ. Although the Commissioner’s report is predominantly focused on climate change mitigation, it recognises that we cannot ignore climate change adaptation. Adapting to the changing climate presents significant challenges for local government and New Zealand’s communities. We agree with the Commissioner’s view that the proposal to enact a Zero Carbon Act and create a Climate Commission provides an opportunity to reset the way New Zealand has been approaching its responsibilities around climate change adaptation. LGNZ’s long held position is that there is an urgent need for central and local government alignment on adaptation. This includes: > Central and local government need to work together to agree on a common set of goals and priorities for climate change adaptation; > A need to jointly develop a clear adaptation plan which sets out roles and responsibilities for action by all levels of government, sectors and individuals;

> Revise existing legislative frameworks to ensure that they are fit for purpose and enable and protect councils making responsible adaptation decisions; and > There is also an urgent need to address the issue of adaptation funding. Councils are already working hard to address both adaptation and mitigation. For example, Hawke’s Bay Regional Council has developed a 100-year coastal hazards strategy for the long-term management of the coast between Clifton and Tangoio. Wellington City Council has its Low Carbon Capital Plan and Auckland Council its Low Carbon Action Plan. Greater Wellington Regional Council undertook work last year to understand projected weather impacts on the Wellington region and Dunedin City Council has a Climate Change Adaptation Plan. Local government is ready to do more but requires greater direction from the Government. We need greater clarity of roles and responsibilities and agreement on financial responsibilities for adaptation action. We also need the Government to lead a national education and engagement programme to ensure communities are aware of the full extent of climate change impacts, risks and opportunities for adaptation and mitigation.

LGNZ’s climate change project LGNZ’s “legal toolkit” will contain resources to provide councils with assistance in respect of climate change adaptation decision making. This will be available shortly and will include information on: > Councils’ ability to limit or stop provision of services in areas that are or may be impacted by climate change; > Liability and related risks for councils in relation to the issue of LIMs containing natural hazard/climate change impact information (including a LIM template); and > Councils’ ability to limit development in natural hazard areas. We will be running a series of webinars and workshops in conjunction with EquiP which look at these topics in more detail.

EDITOR

CCO Governance Relationships between the shareholder, that is the council, and council-controlled organisations can be critical to the success of the councilâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s strategic aspirations for the community. In some instances, council-controlled organisations deliver critical services to the communities they serve. CCOs may also leverage efficiencies and cost savings from having increased scale of economy, provide a revenue stream to Council that assists with funding, or even provide economic stimulus and be part of the councilâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s social and economic development plans. Irrespective of the strategic benefit and purpose of a council-controlled organisation, as with councils, governance excellence is critical to their

success. It should be recognised that the governance of a councilcontrolled organisation starts with its shareholder, and directors of a council-controlled organisation should be primarily focused on corporate governance to achieve the shareholderâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s strategic aspirations. As such, directors should be selected on the basis of not only their individual experience and skill set, but also selected on the wider needs of the Board to ensure it has the breadth, depth, and range of skills, as well as diversity, succession planning, and institutional knowledge.

CCO Governance Directors should be selected on the basis of not only their individual experience and skill set, but also selected on the wider needs of the Board to ensure it has the breadth, depth, and range of skills, as well as diversity, succession planning, and institutional knowledge. Furthermore, Board members should be assessed as individuals and as a collective across a broad range of competencies across governance and technical experience, personal and professional values, commercial acumen, cultural competency, and acting as a good employer, including well-being, health and safety, equity and performance. Not only is it good practice and expected of the community, under the LGA local authorities are required to undertake performance monitoring of organisations to evaluate their contribution to achievement of: > the local authority’s objectives for the organisation; > desired results, as set out in the organisation’s statement of intent; and > the overall aims and outcomes of the local authority. The LGA outlines the principal objective of a council-controlled organisation as being to; > achieve the objectives of its shareholders, both commercial and non-commercial; > as specified in the statement of intent; > be a good employer; and > exhibit a sense of social and environmental responsibility by having regard to the interests of the community in which it operates.

How do you do this? We suggest the shareholder undertake a review on a regular basis and look at such things as: the shareholder’s representation; the adequacy of the statement of intent; whether this statement is still aligned to the strategic aspirations and is still relevant; whether the statement gives a clear direction on expectations; whether there is an up-to-date, robust governance Board manual in place that covers appointments; a review and refresh of Board directors; as well as terms under which they are engaged. Of equal importance, as in any relationship, there is a need to set up clear lines of communication between the shareholder and the Board, which respects the roles and responsibilities of each. Proactive relationship management is the responsibility of both parties.

EquiP CCO Review EquiP has developed a methodology to review the relationship and governance of council-controlled organisations to ensure they are set up to deliver the very best value to the shareholder and communities. We can also assist with the review of your Board structure, makeup, and facilitate Board appointments using our 100-point assessment methodology, as well as review your Board governance manual to ensure you have robust best practice systems in place to succeed. For more information, please email equip@lgnz.co.nz.

< Relationships between the shareholder, that is the council, and councilcontrolled organisations can be critical to the success of the council’s strategic aspirations for the community. >

The Final Word Revitalising the regions important for all of New Zealand A greater focus on New Zealand’s regions is a welcomed development and it is hoped the $1 billion a year Provincial Growth Fund will give New Zealand’s regions a boost and help unlock the potential of our rural and smaller centres. New Zealand’s regions are significant contributors to the economy but a range of factors, including population and technological changes mean some have struggled. While in recent times economic growth has returned to some areas, this has been uneven and has led to stark discrepancies between sometimes neighbouring regions.

In our view the approach the Government has committed to taking, with a genuine intent to partner with local government, is the right one. To successfully tackle the challenge of regional development we need to involve communities in the decision-making process so that the diversity, assets and attributes of our regions are reflected in the decisions made.

The country’s economic growth strategy needs to consider the nation as a whole and the Government’s commitment to much greater investment in regions is a welcome step. The Fund aims to enhance economic development opportunities, create sustainable jobs, contribute to community well-being, lift the productivity potential of regions, and help meet New Zealand’s climate change targets.

LGNZ has recently completed a roadshow as part of its review of local government’s investment into economic development services in New Zealand. The timing is good with the desired outcome to improve the sector’s performance in this important area of investment. LGNZ is working hard to ensure a strong partnership with central government in the delivery of the Provincial Growth Fund. The report and recommendations will be available for councils to consider what this might mean for them locally.

Revitalising the regions, especially those that are not seeing some of the growth others are experiencing, will have benefits not just for those areas but also for the rest of the country. National success, and achieving our goals of strong and vibrant communities, relies on realising the full economic potential of all regions. Doing this is a complex task that requires a partnership between local and central government, communities and the private sector. The Provincial Growth Fund acknowledges the important role of local communities in deciding where and how to invest, and LGNZ will work with councils to ensure communities get the most from the Fund.

In the meantime LGNZ encourages its members to take up the opportunity the new funding provides. There are no funding rounds and the Government has made a real effort to make the application processes reasonably simple so that all councils can easily participate. You can access the applications at www.mbie.govt.nz. LGNZ is continuing to work with MBIE to support the Government’s intention to deliver strong economic outcomes in the regions through this new mechanism.

< National success, and achieving our goals of strong and vibrant communities, relies on realising the full economic potential of all regions. >

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