Summary

Bryce Edwards (Political Analyst and Director of the Democracy Project) provides a detailed roundup of some major issues with local government in New Zealand. Issues covered in his article included:

  • Councillors around the country complain that unelected bureaucrats are dominating local government decision-making.
  • Over 10,000 local government managers in New Zealand are reported to be paid salaries over $100,000, with over 742 being paid over $200,000 a year.
  • A Free Speech Union survey of Councillors in New Zealand had over 54% of respondents agreeing that council codes of conduct are being “weaponised to silence local councillors”.
  • There has been a split in Wellington City Council with some left-wing Councillors claiming Mayor Tory Whanau “has been captured by the agenda of council officers”.
  • Three dissenting Wellington City Councillors have alleged that council staff “manipulate and block information within the council, which they say is contributing to disastrous decision-making”.
  • Simeon Brown (Minister of Local Government) has publicly condemned Barbara McKerrow (Wellington City Council CEO) for withholding information from elected members of Council, saying “CEOs need to ensure that they respect the fact that mayors and councillors are elected, and they are not”.
  • Christchurch City Council has had “a long-running battle for control between senior staff and elected councillors”
  • Anne Tolley (Tauranga Commission Chair)“appears to have abused her ostensibly neutral position to play politics, influencing the upcoming election” (Tauranga City Council Election 2024).
  • The academic theory of the “Professional Managerial Class” can be used to explain the dominant attitudes, power structures, and behaviours in local government.

Article Details

Headline: When Unelected officials dominate the local democratic process

Authored by: Bryce Edwards

Published on: 19 June 2024

Published by: Democracy Project

Link:

https://democracyproject.substack.com/p/when-unelected-officials-dominate

Archived Link:

https://web.archive.org/web/20240724072049/https://democracyproject.substack.com/p/when-unelected-officials-dominate

Important Quotes

“Dysfunction and dissatisfaction appear to pervade many local government councils at the moment. Increasingly, the blame for this is accumulating around the role of the bureaucracy – the unelected officials and consultants, who stand accused of overstepping their mark and becoming the real decision-makers in local democracy.

In numerous councils around the country, elected councillors complain that the council officials, and often their council’s chief executive, have usurped the power to make decisions or at least come to dominate the elected councillors in their decision-making. This is a fundamental problem for the principles of democracy, in which the bureaucracy is supposed to serve those with the elected mandate.”

Bryce Edwards, When Unelected officials dominate the local democratic process, Democracy Project, 19 June 2024

 

“For a long time now, I’ve been of the belief that while mayors and councillors might like to think they’re running the place – they’re not. And it’s the council staff who really run the place”

John MacDonald as quoted by Bryce Edwards in When Unelected officials dominate the local democratic process, Democracy Project, 19 June 2024

 

“To explain how officials have dominated local councils, it’s worth considering the academic theory of the “Professional Managerial Class”, which is increasingly seen as an excellent way to understand modern politics and society. The “Professional Managerial Class”, or PMC, is that group of middle class, highly paid, and highly-educated, urban professionals who are generally viewed as “progressives” and increasingly control most elements of public life (alongside the public service, media, universities, Parliament, business, etc).

It could be argued that local government is simply the latest institution that the PMC has come to dominate. As per usual, it has done so by bureaucratic means rather than democratically. Hence, local councils are now one of the main staffing places for those who want to progressively engineer social change.”

Bryce Edwards, When Unelected officials dominate the local democratic process, Democracy Project, 19 June 2024