A new Local Government Commission investigation is underway into the reorganisation of the four Southland councils.
A proposal from the Southland District Council to create two Unitary Councils - joining with Gore to oversee regional council functions, and keeping Invercargill as a city-based one, would see Environment Southland cut out.
The Local Government Commission accepted the proposal as valid and has started an investigation of its own.
Invercargill City councillors agreed today to support the investigation, but wanted to make it clear they didn’t necessarily support the two unitary council option, seeing a single one as better.
Invercargill Mayor Nobby Clark told council that a paper would be coming to Environment Southland councillors this week as well, “and it’s no secret they are not particularly happy with it.”
A report to ICC from manager governance and legal Michael Morris, said it was unknown if there was any community support or opposition to the reorganisation, but informal feedback suggested that the community was interested and open to exploring other options.
SDC’s proposal said that to do the basics well, its governance and operational structures needed to be as efficient as possible.
With four local authorities working across a population of just over 100,000, there was waste of time, money, and resources – and at times, conflicted leadership on important strategic issues leading to opportunity costs.
Mayor Clark said amalgamation wasn’t something that was going to happen quickly, using the example of Wairarapa that had gone through the process unsuccessfully, and was having another go.
“This is not a done deal. It will take a long long time.”
Mayor Clark said he’d put the proposal of having one unitary authority with one Mayor for Southland, two deputy mayors and two chief executives to SDC Mayor Rob Scott, “but it just fell on deaf ears.”