Mayors slam 'pointless', costly reviews that'll be voided by council mergers

Councils are having to fork out for work they say will be irrelevant after looming amalgamations, yet the Government says it can't give them a pass.

Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) says it has repeatedly raised concerns about legislative requirements to do a representation review given current councils won't exist once the amalgamation freight train rolls through in 2028.

Waikato District Council mayor Aksel Bech says reviews are now "actually, kind of pointless" after councils were unintentionally put on a collision course with amalgamation.

The premise of 'Simplifying Local Government' being a cost saving scheme would be undermined if hundreds of thousands in ratepayer money is spent in the interim, Bech said.

"Why would you start a pointless representation review that's going to cost upwards of $100,000 when by the time you finish it, it's going to be completely overtaken by amalgamation talk?"

Waikato will also need to finalise its 10-year Long Term in the coming months, which Bech said will be "redundant" by year three and cost upwards of $400,000 in legally-required external audits.

While Bech understands Government has indicated there's no time to provide legislative relief, he hopes a "practical solution" can be reached sooner rather than later.

"All we need is for the minister to basically confirm that no one's going to give us a growling."

Matamata-Piako District Council Mayor Ash Tanner agreed with his counterpart Bech, questioning whether central Government "even have a grasp on what we actually do".

"We're legislated to do these things but it all comes at a cost. It's their circus, not ours... this is where we can save some money because why would you do it?

"It seems pointless to me."

The discussion stems from LGNZ president Rehette Stoltz saying representation reviews alone could cost ratepayers more than $2.5 million nation-wide.

"We have raised this a number of times with the Government and their response has been that there won't be any action till at least the end of the year, if at all," she added.

"Councils need certainty now so they can avoid wasting ratepayers' time and money on unnecessary representation reviews."

When Local Democracy Reporting asked Local Government Minister Simon Watts if the Government can intervene, his answer was simple - it's not possible.

"Councils have raised concerns about representation reviews, and we recognise they can create unnecessary cost and bureaucracy," Watts said.

"Through the Head Start proposals councils were able to identify any barriers to implementation, including where they considered changes to current statutory obligations may be required.

"Any regulatory relief sought by councils would need to be considered by a future Government following the 2026 General Election."

Tanner said audit fees for his council's Long Term Plan will become "exponential", again piling pressure on ratepayers.

Bech said the fate for councils who entered into the "Back Stop" is still unclear.

He believed submitting a proposal to the bargaining table was more palatable to his community.

"We expect decisions to be made by the end of September and then the devil is in the details. We don't know what that means for [Hamilton City and Taupō District] because they were named in our model."

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.