It's inevitable that Wellingtonians would be down in the trough. Look how Central Government is behaving towards thousands of their citizens right now. So lower levels of satisfaction are predictable, and of no fault of Local Government.
However, there are two issues with the Whanau mayoralty. One is she had little experience with local government when she stood for office. She has had to learn on the job. From outside of the City, she appears to be a slow learner. Political Parties choosing young candidates from their research units with little experience of life beyond politics blights all parties.
Secondly, Wellington highlights a flaw in the Local Government Act (LGA). For those of us involved in the creation of the LGA we made a big mistake in supporting the only staff member that elected reps had any say over was the CE. Throughout NZ this has increasingly proven to be a problem. We need a serious debate about the LGA. Most of it is fine but control of staffing decisions is a real challenge. I listened to the Chair of the Hawkes Bay Regional Council be garroted on RNZ a few days ago about Wairoa flooding. It appeared to me that the staff had not acted quickly enough before a torrential rain event but was the CE being interviewed? Nah, it was the elected chair. I have seen so many times over the years staff members announcing "popular" actions and elected reps being strung up for unpopular issues over which they had little, if any, power over. Count me in for the necessary debate.
It's inevitable that Wellingtonians would be down in the trough. Look how Central Government is behaving towards thousands of their citizens right now. So lower levels of satisfaction are predictable, and of no fault of Local Government.
However, there are two issues with the Whanau mayoralty. One is she had little experience with local government when she stood for office. She has had to learn on the job. From outside of the City, she appears to be a slow learner. Political Parties choosing young candidates from their research units with little experience of life beyond politics blights all parties.
Secondly, Wellington highlights a flaw in the Local Government Act (LGA). For those of us involved in the creation of the LGA we made a big mistake in supporting the only staff member that elected reps had any say over was the CE. Throughout NZ this has increasingly proven to be a problem. We need a serious debate about the LGA. Most of it is fine but control of staffing decisions is a real challenge. I listened to the Chair of the Hawkes Bay Regional Council be garroted on RNZ a few days ago about Wairoa flooding. It appeared to me that the staff had not acted quickly enough before a torrential rain event but was the CE being interviewed? Nah, it was the elected chair. I have seen so many times over the years staff members announcing "popular" actions and elected reps being strung up for unpopular issues over which they had little, if any, power over. Count me in for the necessary debate.
I've heard younger Wellingtonians get annoyed with their elders constantly looking back on better days but the city does have some problems