Southland District Council community governance set to change
Monday, 28 October 2019
Southland District Council's large scale change of its local governance structure looks set to be cemented.
On Friday, at council's first meeting since the local body elections, if the councillors go with the recommended option put to them, 27 Community Development Area subcommittees [CDA's] and community boards will become nine community boards.
The change is a result of a four-year community governance review project.
The re-structure means the community boards would report to the relevant council committee, dependent on their decisions being finance, services or community based.
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Under the previous structure, there were more than 175 members of the council, community boards, and various committees and subcommittees - yet about 10,000 people were not represented.
A council report, authored by chief executive Steve Ruru, says the restructure means the whole district is now represented.
Ruru's report says council may wish to consider administration costs, which support the establishment of a simple and yet effective committee structure.
The function of reporting to the relevant council committees will allow the committees to make consistent decisions, the report says.
'The proposed approach will mean, for example, that community boards would be accountable via the Services and Assets committee for community facilities and jetties even though these are local activities.'
In July 2018, now re-elected Mararoa Waimea councillor John Douglas said the dissolution of the CDA's would mean a loss of a volunteer base present in the communities who provided local leadership.
After CDA representatives unanimously voting against the abolishment of CDA's in June 2018, former Mossburn CDA chair Jim Guyton said since former mayor Frana Cardno started the subcommittees, 'she has been remembered for giving local communities a voice'.