LTP consultation documents - feedback from the Auditor-General

The Auditor General has published a report on the first round of LTP consultation documents to be produced since the legislation requiring them came into effect last year. The full report is available here  http://www.oag.govt.nz/2015/ltp-consultation-documents/docs/ltp-consultation-documents.pdf

Three key themes of the Auditor-General's report are:

• what worked best in consultation documents
• issues with supporting documents, including the mandatory infrastructure and financial strategies
• some innovative consultation methods being used by some councils around New Zealand, including increasing use of social media to receive submissions.

Consultation documents
Some of the best consultation documents were concise. They often:

• used the main elements of the proposed financial and infrastructure strategies to introduce issues; and
• clearly explained the significant issues for the local authority, including the relevant options and implications.
  
  

Issues with some consultation documents were they:

• included too much background or other unnecessary information, leading to a loss of focus;
• contained poor discussion of the infrastructure and financial strategies, so it was difficult to understand what the strategies were and how they related to the significant issues;
• were unclear about which issues the local authority had already consulted on and which were new issues for consultation; and
• had poorly written consultation questions.

A consultation document needs to be clear about matters a local authority:

• has already consulted on;
• is currently consulting on; and
• will consult on in the future through a separate consultation process.

Supporting documents
Making it easy to find the supporting information is important.

In Federated Farmers’ view, the consultation process was not improved by the need to consider multiple documents and to search for information that had previously been contained in a consistent and coherent order in the LTP.

SOLGM’s recommendation to all local authorities is to complete a full draft LTP to support the consultation document.

Innovative consultation methods - Auckland, New Plymouth and Dunedin.

In Auckland, people could make verbal or written submissions and use social media. Digital promotion included banners on websites such as MetService, TradeMe, The New Zealand Herald, and Stuff. The Council also used Facebook and Twitter to request and receive consultation.

The website also provided two tools the Audit Office considered to be particularly useful. These were a budget calculator and a rates calculator.

• The budget calculator allowed users to experiment with different funding levels for Council activities, reflecting the options proposed in the consultation document. It calculated the effect of the options on total Council debt levels, total Council spending, and average household rates.
• The rates calculator allowed users to enter a specific address and get details of the rates applicable to that property based on the proposals in the consultation document. It was also possible to enter the different levels of Uniform Annual General Charge that were provided as options in the consultation document to understand the effect on household rates.

New Plymouth District Council launched an interactive website called MyRates. This website provided ratepayers with an innovative way to see the effect of including or excluding the main proposals on their rates. Users could then submit their preferences to elected members.

The Council also produced this video, “What has the Council ever done for us?”

This was a novel and light-hearted approach to highlighting the various services that the Council provides with ratepayer funds. The video had received more than 3300 views at the time the Audit Office wrote this report.

The Council also used social media extensively to raise public awareness of the consultation process and to encourage members of the community to have their say.

Dunedin City Council considers that changes to the Act provided it with more freedom to engage with the community and consider feedback than had previously been the case. Residents were made aware that they could provide feedback through social media, which would be provided to councillors for consideration. This was a change from the Council’s previous approach of using social media to tell the community how to provide feedback, but not actually to receive and collate feedback.

The Council also used its “People’s Panel” to provide feedback. This email-based panel includes members of the public from a range of backgrounds who provide views on topical issues that are before the Council. 
​
The Mayor hosted two online chats during the consultation period. Interested residents were able to lodge questions or provide comments, and the Mayor then responded online. Transcripts of the chats were made available on the Council’s website.