1st March 2012

Straight Thinking Digest: The Flood of Dissent in Full Flow

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Contents.
Background: Why so much Dissent at this time? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. The Generic Problem The impact of amalgamation compounded by General The Myth that Bigger is Better. Small really is Beautiful. Its Time to Take our Councils Back. Kaipara District Council a Case Study. And what a case! When Councillors Dissent. Will We ever Learn? Indoctrinating our School Kids to Make Sure we Dont. Census 2011: Urban Dispersion In Canada Time To Rethink This Experiment? Delusion Down Under. Need Assistance? PDF of this Digest. Competence.

Background: Why so much Dissent at this time?

Recent ST Digests have drawn attention to the wave of dissent spreading throughout the Western World in response to the failed experiment in central planning at the local and regional level of Government. For some reason we have suffered decades of top-down local planning in spite of the total failure of central planning in economies as diverse as the Soviet Empire, Maoist China, and North Korea. This wave has now become a flood and is attracting attention in all quarters. During the property boom, triggered by the planners excessive regulation of land markets, and powered by the speculative bubble and lending, the rapid inflation in land prices allowed 1

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the planners to fund their excessive interventions and compliance costs, and of course their own salaries and fees, because the speculators and developers could absorb the costs. But now the bubble has burst the real costs are being revealed. Worse, the drop in revenues means that Council budgets are now hopelessly out of kilter and the anticipated development contributions (fines) do not even fund the interest on the borrowings. Remarkably, the typical response of Council administrators and their consultants has been too increase fees and charges to try and maintain the lifestyle to which they have become adjusted. Of course, it doesnt work any more than a retail store can increase revenues by increasing its prices. So the obvious solution was to raise the rates. Suddenly, the ratepayers began to ask the hard questions and demanded to know why they should be expected to pay for other peoples profligacy. A good question, and a hard one to answer. Especially when asked by all those pensioners on fixed incomes.

1. The Generic Problem Amalgamation Compounded by the Powers of General Competence.

The current crisis in Local Government has two basic causes. The first is the belief that bigger is always best. Whenever some local government creates a mess the immediate response is to propose amalgamation. But the end result is no more than a local authority considerably larger than the one whose problems have just proved too big for councils to deal with. Dr Smith, the Minister for Local Government and the Environment, has recognized that Local Government is dysfunctional, drawing attention to the escalating rates and debt levels that are causing waves of discontent all around the country. These symptoms of widespread failure of are largely the result of the last round of amalgamations in 1989. Councillors suddenly found themselves in charge of multi-million dollar organizations that demanded skills and experience well beyond their levels of competence. Since then, the Chief Executives (previously known as Town Clerks) have been able to exercise largely unbridled power.

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Those problems were then compounded by the 2002 amendments to the Local Government Act that gave Councils the power of general competence. This expansion of powers enabled already over-extended authorities to expand into new policies and activities totally outside their competence. Their general incompetence has been demonstrated all around the country as exemplified by the losses on V8 races, entertainment events, swimming pools, sewage schemes, arenas, and exploding levels of debt and rates. Project cost overruns became the norm as a councillors lost control of their staff, consultants and advisors. The end result has been that most of our councils have been colonized by major corporations who are now busy exploiting the local environment industry. These consultancies regard our districts and cities as little more than well-funded ATM machines. Its time to take back control of our Councils and their Plans. Hopefully, Dr Smiths proposed caps on borrowing and rates will restrain these excesses.

2.

The Myth that Bigger is Better.

The routine response to any problem in local government is to propose amalgamation. The end result is a local authority considerably larger than the one whose problems have proved too big to deal with. Dr Smith, the Minister for Local Government and the Environment, has recognized that Local Government is dysfunctional, drawing attention to the escalating rates and debt levels that are causing waves of discontent all around the country. These symptoms of widespread failure of are largely the result of the last round of amalgamations in 1989. But sadly he is also launching a further round of amalgamation. For example, he is promoting the amalgamation of the Unitary Councils of Tasman and Nelson into a single Unitary Council. Kaipara District Council is in financial meltdown and so he has proposed similar amalgamations for Northland. He says his general aim is to get rid of Regional Councils. However, his current proposals will actually get rid of Local Councils, leaving behind a few truly massive Super-Regional Councils. It will take 4.5 hours to drive from one end of the Tasman/Nelson Council to the other. The merged Kaipara-West and Far North Council would stretch from Kaipara Harbours North Head to Cape Reinga another 4.5 hour drive.

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This bias is understandable; Dr Smith is an engineer, and he instinctively focuses on the efficiency of regional services which do enjoy the benefits of scale. But democracy enjoys no benefits of scale. Small local councils can be effectively governed by local citizens and managed by local staff and consultants who actually know their people and territory. Many councils are in the midst of RMA plan reviews and any amalgamation means the millions of dollars invested in those plans must be written-off and the whole planning process, including Long Term and Annual Plans, begun again. Proposed reforms to the RMA will generate another round of plan reviews. This endless plan writing halts all development because of the consequent DURT (Delays, Uncertainties, Regulations, and Taxes). This is the time to implement a comprehensive reform of the legislative framework for the whole of local government in New Zealand.

3.

Small really is Beautiful.

The people of Switzerland place great emphasis on both efficiency and democracy. The average Swiss Commune (district council) has two thousand people. The average Canton (region) has 135,000 people. Switzerland is one of the most successful economies in the world. Maybe small really is beautiful and we Power to the People folk of the sixties had it right all along.

4.

Its Time to take our Councils Back.

Just prior to the last Local Body elections I wrote a pamphlet, widely distributed to the Residents and Ratepayers of Kaipara District called Its Time to Take our Councils Back. Muriel Newmans New Zealand Centre for Political Research here, has given me the opportunity to say I told you so on her Guest Forum here. The company is excellent. Muriels own essay The Need for Local Government Reform and her husband Franks recommendations on Regulatory Controls for Local Bodies complement my commentary on how we got here, with some forthright recommendations for the future. Frank puts the blame squarely where it belongs. While KDC has its own sorry tale to tell, Frank makes a generic point about Central Governments actions and intertia across the country when he writes: 4

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The proper place for Kaipara to confess their errors and plead poverty is at the doors of central government. It is they and their agencies that have sat on their hands and watched Kaipara go deeper down the drain. Indeed the failings of central government to adequately oversee local government goes back as far as 2002 when it assumed councils were competent to handle the greater powers given to them with the reform of the Local Government Act in 2002. Muriel reminds Government that no matter what is strives to achieve it will be defeated so long as Local Government is allowed to continue its spendthrift ways. She writes: There are widespread problems with local government. At a time when central government is tightening its belt, striving to reduce debt and lower its costs, local government appears to be moving in the opposite direction. In contrast to households and farms, which have been reducing debt since the onset of the global recession in 2008, council debt has been on the rise with borrowings growing from $500 million in 2007, to $800 million in 2008, $1,100 million in 2009, and to $1,800 million in 2010....

5.

Kaipara District Council A case study.

Kaiparas own Legal Eagle, (a retired Barrister and Solicitor) has been on the Kaipara Case for some time now, focusing on the illegal setting of rates and related charges. He has now been vindicated by an independent report by Simpson and Grierson. His latest report is here: http://www.kaiparaconcerns.co.nz/ Its hard to do justice to this collection of concerns. All I can do is strongly recommend readers set aside some time to read the whole sorry story. In particular the total failure of the Governments watchdogs to take any action in spite of all the evidence is thoroughly documented here: http://www.kaiparaconcerns.co.nz/200458/html/page.html

When Councillors Dissent.

So far I have concentrated on the general conditions that have changed Council behaviour. There is much more to discuss in future Digests. The general argument in this Digest has been that amalgamation and the extension of powers has meant that the tasks and responsibilities of Councils are now beyond the competence of their own councillors. 5

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This is generally true but there are the exceptions that prove the rule. Bruce Logan and Bill Guest, both former Councillors of Kaipara District, had the necessary skills and moral fortitude to ask most of the hard questions and demand the necessary answers. Their efforts were not appreciated. Current Councillor Jonathan Larsen began raising the same issues during the election campaign and has continued to press for the necessary financial information, and legal opinions, to be presented to Council so as to allow them to properly make their decisions. His efforts have not been appreciated and indeed, he has effectively been prohibited from making any sensible contributions to Councils decision making. (A future Digest will deal with this general failure of proper process especially as it relates to the notification of the Proposed District Plan.) At this stage it is best to let the Workboot Councillor tell his own story at his web page here. In particular, the menu item Workboot Motions documents Cr. Larsens multitude of attempts to table notices of motions only to have the great majority of them censored or lost, or failed for want of a seconder. This web page demonstrates that the web allows councilors elsewhere, who find themselves similarly silenced, or stripped of their portfolios and committee memberships, to speak directly to their electorate. One can also only hope that those Kaipara Councillors who recorded their determination to remain uninformed are now having second thoughts. We have to ask why the standards now applied to the Lombard Directors do not seem to apply to Councillors, who seem happy to work on the principle that ignorance is bliss.

7.

Will We Ever Learn?

The planning theory of Smart Growth has proven to be one of the great failed experiments of all time. And yet many people continue to be seduced by the foolish concepts of Dense Thinking and Compacted Cities. (It does take some flexibility of thought to believe that serious congestion will be reduced by further intensification.) Anyhow, for those who continue to be persuaded: In his essay from "The New Blackwell Companion to the City", UK urbanist Richard Sennett argues that to create more habitable, vibrant cities, urban planners need to focus more on revitalisting life at the borders between communities: "The planning of 6

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the last century was hopeless at creating or promoting borderlands". Planners need to focus on the "living edge" of communities and on making the city a more open and flexible system" From TLS February 10th 2012.

8.

Indoctrinating our School Kids to make sure we Dont

Bay of Plenty community leaders got down on the floor this morning to build their dream city using blocks and a giant floor map. They were getting a hands-on look at a new teaching resource launched for high school students that looks at managing growth in the western Bay of Plenty. 'Managing Growth - SmartGrowth' has been jointly developed by the western Bay of Plenty's growth planning organisation SmartGrowth, Tauranga City Council and Bay of Plenty Regional Council with educational curriculum development company Indigo Pacific. The free resource uses SmartGrowth and the western Bay of Plenty sub-region as a case study for managing growth, exploring global growth-related concepts and national growth-related trends. Launching the resource, SmartGrowth independent Chairman Bill Wasley said the resource is free for all education providers to use to develop the knowledge of future generations about issues of population growth and how communities can manage these issues over a long period of time. "It investigates the nature of population growth, in particular in the western Bay of Plenty sub-region, urban settlements and patterns, planning and decision-making, and population growth and sustainability-related issues relevant to our region," he said.

Read the whole story here and weep. http://www.voxy.co.nz/national/managing-growth-teaching-resource-launched-bop/5/114876

9.

Census 2011: Urban Dispersion In Canada

This essay on growth in Canadian cities shows where population grows in the real world as opposed to the fantasy world of the Dense Thinkers. (Who are always wrong but never in doubt.)

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http://www.newgeography.com/content/002672-special-report-census-2011-urbandispersion-canada

10. Time To Rethink This Experiment? Delusion Down Under.

Ross Elliot writes on newgeopgraphy The famous physicist, Albert Einstein, was noted for his powers of observation and rigorous observance of the scientific method. It was insanity, he once wrote, to repeat the same experiment over and over again, and to expect a different outcome. With that in mind, I wonder what Einstein would make of the last decade and a bit of experimentation in Queenslands urban planning and development assessment? A sample of Ross Elliots pungent commentary follows: So the triple whammy of reform in just over a decade was that regulations and complexity exploded, supply became artificially constrained to meet some deterministic view of how and where us mere citizens might be permitted to live, and costs and charges levied on new housing (and new development generally) exploded. At no point during this period, and this has to be emphasised, can anyone honestly claim that this has achieved anything positive. It has made housing prohibitively expensive, and less responsive to market signals. Simply put, it takes longer, costs more, and is vastly more complicated than it was before, for no measureable gain. He concludes: All up, its a pretty damming assessment of whats been achieved in just over a decade. Of course the proponents of the current approach might warn that without all this complexity, cost and frustration Queensland would be subject to runaway growth and a return to the policies of sprawl. The answer to that, surely, is that everything prior to the late 1990s was delivered successfully without all this baggage. Life was affordable, the economy strong, growth was a positive and things were getting done. Queensland, and south east Queensland in particular, was regarded as a place with a strong future and a magnet for talent and capital. Now, thats been lost. Einstein would tell us to stop this experiment and try something else if we arent happy with the results. To persist with the current frameworks and philosophies can only mean the advocates of the status quo consider these outcomes to be acceptable. Is anyone prepared to put up their hand and say that they are? 8

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No doubt, unless we come to our senses someone will cut and past this story to summarise the failure of the great Auckland experiment in Central Planning by the ardent promoters of Dense Thinking. Read Elliots whole essay here.

11. Assistance.
If you need assistance in challenging your Councils land use policies, or proposals for amalgamation feel free to contact the Centre for Straight Thinking to discuss how we might be able to help. Or help us finance our own research and submissions by making a donation using the form attached to the email message.

12. PDF of this Digest.

See attachment to email message. 1104 Oneriri Rd, R.D. 2, Kaiwaka, Northland, New Zealand. 0573 64 9 431 2775