Long Term Community Plan 2012-2022 - Hurunui District Council

www.hurunui.govt.nz
Activity 1: Governance
Overview
The Governance activity includes the various functions of
running a local authority around democratic services.
Current Situation
The governance function is the democratic decision making
process and includes the overall management of the Council,
implementation of Council policy, support to elected members,
representation and decision making at a political level and
Council leadership. One of our primary roles is to act as an
advocate for the district because it is the only local body that
is representative of all the residents of the Hurunui. We are
involved in advocating the interests of residents where proposals
from whichever source are regarded as having a potential effect
on our community. We monitor central government initiatives
that may impact upon our residents or communities. We also
have a key responsibility to raise the community’s awareness of
major Council proposals, and where people may be significantly
affected.
Our Council comprises of the Mayor (elected at large) and
nine Councillors elected on a ward basis. The Mayor and
the Councillors have the role of setting the policy direction
and monitoring the performance of the Council. We have an
extensive Council committee structure involving Councillors
and independent members across the District. Among
these committees, the Hanmer Springs Ward has an elected
Community Board. The Amberley and Cheviot Wards are
served by Ward Committees, whereas the Amuri – Hurunui
Ward, has two community committees (one in Amuri and the
other in Hurunui).
It is Council’s responsibility to employ a Chief Executive
Officer (CEO) who in turn, is responsible for staff and the
implementation and management of Council’s policies and
objectives. The CEO, Andrew Dalziel was appointed in late 2007
with a five year contract. The CEO is the employer of all the
Council staff.
The CEO and his management team work with elected
members in setting the District’s direction and then shape and
lead the organisation to deliver on the agreed direction. The
organisational purpose is ‘making the District even better!’
Personal staff values are to act with commitment, competence,
confidence, and integrity and have respect for both other’s
opinions and importantly the democratic process. Organisational
values are to deliver, take responsibility, work together, embrace
fresh thinking, aim high and be an employer of choice.
The CEO and Council are committed to being a High
Performance Organisation. Items of work that are required to
be undertaken to achieve improved performance are provided
around six characteristics of a High Performance Organisation:
being clear about our vision; providing high quality advice;
providing best value; having a service ethic; being adaptive,
flexible and agile and managing risks.
We have undertaken an annual residents’ satisfaction survey
since 2007 to measure customer satisfaction over a wide range
of our services. In general terms, there has been a continual
increase in overall resident satisfaction with the Council’s
performance during that time. Residents’ perception of our
overall performance in 2011 has improved and now sits at 87%.
Satisfaction with the Mayor and Councillor’s performance is
76%. Satisfaction with the service received at Council offices
was 79%.
Plans for the future
We will continue to review our performance for all areas of
Council – mayor, elected members, CEO, staff and the delivery
of our services which includes contractor performance. The
residents’ satisfaction survey provides us with good quality
feedback on a range of services and issues and helps us improve
and adjust to the District’s changing needs. The results of the
survey are available to members of the public and can be located
on our website – www.hurunui.govt.nz
We will continue to advocate on behalf of our people as issues
come up. Often issues that arise cannot be planned for as they
are usually beyond our control and often arise from plans that
other organisations and government agencies implement. At
times we receive invitations to submit to proposals such as
legislation changes or from neighbouring Councils.
Local government elections are undertaken every 3 years. The
next election is in October 2013 and preparation will commence
early that year. We are responsible for conducting the election
process for the two liquor licensing trusts in the district (Cheviot
and Hawarden), and for some of the election processes for the
Canterbury District Health Board and the Canterbury Regional
Council. The elections are held at the same time. An electoral
officer must be appointed by Council to manage the elections.
We have contracted an election specialist to conduct the past
three elections. This has proven to be the most cost efficient
and effective method for us and has caused the least disruption
to our ‘business as usual’ services. We are likely to continue to
contract an external provider for the future triennial elections.
We are required to review our ‘representation’ arrangements at
least once every 6 years. This means that we must review the:
• number of Councillors it has in the district
• number of wards in the district, or whether to simply
have a district with no wards
• ward boundaries and names of wards
• number and location of community boards
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