Chris Ellis, a candidate for the Onepoto Ward in the forthcoming elections,
admits to being worried. In the course of researching what he hopes will be his
forthcoming role, he entered into a conversation with a councillor from a
neighbouring city who described the role of Council as being “like the captain
of a ship. Council decides where the ship is headed and it’s the job of council
staff to get everyone there.”
Mr Ellis, who has been a sailor all his life, has reservations about this simile.
“Traditionally, the Captain has all the information available and takes great
pains to consider all the risks before committing to a voyage. A good captain’s
reputation is based on an ability to do this repeatedly and to arrive at the
destination each time.”
Chris says that in the world of local government, it is the crew – the council
staff – who are likely to have the best information and they may also have their
own ideas about the destination. Thus the decisions that Councillors get to make
may be based on information which has been curated to favour a particular
choice.
“Take the new Wellington Water entity. We know it’s going to be the recipient
of a lot of our assets. We know it will group together people who have expertise
in water resource management and that it will assume responsibility for building
and maintaining water infrastructure. These all sound like good things. But,
according to the Council’s own figures, it won’t lower rates.”
According to Mr Ellis, council members who are standing for re-election have an
advantage because they participated in these decisions.“What disadvantages
them is that ratepayers know these same councillors have voted for measures
which have seen rates increase dramatically.”
“I respect them” says Mr Ellis. “They are performing their civic duty and the decisions
can’t be easy. But things usually get easier when you go back to the chart.
Where are we headed? Is it where we want to go?”