The local government league table

People and groups interested in local government, may find this report of interest:

• The 2012 LGLT covering all 67 New Zealand territorial local authorities ‘fits’ neatly within the Government’s recent announcements of local government reforms and validates (from its data) public concerns of some poor Council performance. No Council scores higher than 36 out of 50 for the financial and economic metricated measures of the LGLT;
• The bulk of Councils score only ‘Fair’ results (with scores of from 23 to 30 on the 50 point metric scale and are ranked in a range from 31^st to 57^th out of 67 compared to their peers;
• Auckland Council has yet to provide meaningful public information on its financial performance improvement programmes. No useful Auckland Council comparisons with the pre-amalgamation financial and economic status of its seven predecessor Councils has been provided by which the Auckland Council’s comparative post-amalgamation performance could be gauged;
• ‘At risk’ Councils – the ten poorest performers – whose ‘stats’ indicate a combination of unsustainable Council finances and/or unaffordable rates or charges include the Kaipara District (whose present difficulties are well known). Kaipara is the biggest downgrade dropping 49 places to 65^th out of 67 for its metric results – plus it receives a double red traffic light downgrade warning.
•  Hauraki and Upper Hutt have regressed, the latter has dropped 15 places to 58^th … in spite of recent announcements that the Mayor and Council have declined their increased salaries!.  Kaipara and Tararua have yet to file audited accounts.
• The ‘Southern Scots’, Clutha and Southland Districts have swapped the top two places at the head of this (parsimonious) League Table;
• The LGLT uses financial and economic assessment ratios closely allied to the measures that by law will soon be introduced for all Councils relating to their financial management performance and public reporting.
• The 2012 League Table indicates little overall performance improvement in 2011-2012;
• The metric measures have scarcely moved from an average of 30 out of 50 last year to 29 out of 50 in 2012. The consistency of these results over the three or more years of the assessments suggest a reliability and robustness  of the methodology
• Two Councils – Queenstown and Carterton are the biggest improvers both making the top 10 for the first time;

25^th May 2012 … All enquiries to Larry.N.Mitchell Finance & Policy Analyst (Local Government) Phone 09 4220598, email larry@kauriglen.co.nz or see website www.kauriglen.co.nz/larry select BASE STATS WITH TRENDZ/LEAGUE TABLE.

There’s a huge amount of data on Larry’s site. Interesting that we get better data often from an individual, that we do from the Councils or DIA itself.