Auckland Council Auckland Council Immersion Session : Insight and understanding to inform communications pitch to the Auckland Council

Auckland Council Immersion Session

Insight and understanding to inform Colenso BBDO’s pitch to the Auckland Council

THE PROJECTS | AUCKLANDcollaborative projects | concept- brand- execution.

What we’ll coverGetting to know the machine

The changing role of local government and the possibilities for the new Auckland Council

The Big Society and what it could mean for Auckland

The revolution will be digitalised - starting the citizen renaissance online

Introduction to The Projects | Auckland

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1. Getting to know the machine

understanding what local government in Auckland was, the latest reforms, and what it might become

collaborative projects | concept- brand- execution.

1. Getting to know the machine

understanding what local government in Auckland was, the latest reforms, and what it might become


Before we were a Super CityA city of many diverse and di!erent local identities, represented by a diverse range of di!erent Councils

waitakere

manukau

rodney franklin papakura

north shore auckland city

A city known for being dysfunctional and divided, as much as for its beauty and diversity

Before we were a Super City

Fractured governance on show for all to see

Our failure to come together and make regional decisions was highlighted in 2006 with the proposal for a waterfront stadium.

The nations leaders decided Auckland could no longer fail to live up to its potential.

Something had to be done...

However this was nothing new

However this was nothing newDove-Myer Robinson (Mayor of Auckland 1959-1980) proposed a major reform of greater Auckland’s seperate city, borough and county Councils.

He wanted a regional authority that could alone decide issues of metropolitan importance.He advocated rapid rail for Auckland, but the expensive scheme was voted out when Labour reneged on its election pledge to pay for it.

Isolated on the issue, he lost the opportunity to implement a long-term solution to Auckland’s growing transport needs

But this time there was a key strategic reason for change

Internationally the discussion was around the emergence of Mega Regions governed as one, many communities coming together with one strategic voice; the new engines of economic growth internationally.

In short, the government was starting to realise that NZ’s key to competing internationally was through a focus on the thing it loves to hate: Auckland.

In 2002 the World Bank had initiated its metropolitan governance project

“metropolitan governance was fast emerging as the governance issue of the millennium. It refers to the management, leadership and organizational arrangements in large cities, spread over multiple jurisdictions covering urban, peri-urban and rural areas. Metropolitan issues have hovered partially or completely unattended in urban public sector reform for decade”

NZ was about to take the lead in this discussion, designing the most radical governance reforms of any country yet...

A new model for AucklandIn 2007 the Royal Commission on Auckland Governance was established and undertook an 18 month process of intensive investigation and consultation to design an e!ective model for Auckland’s local government.

“The Commission has recognised that there is much in Auckland local government that works, and should be retained. There is much to be commended in the way territorial authorities deliver core services and represent their communities, and these strengths will remain at the heart of local government in Auckland.”

http://auckland.royalcommission.govt.nz/rccms.nsf/CONTENTPAGES/$"rst?open

The commission delivered its recommendations to Rodney Hide

who in three days tore it apart and came up with his own model that didn’t consider the strengths in the existing organisations as "t foundations for the new system.

His actions begged the question; who runs Auckland? Auckland or Wellington?

Aucklanders make their voices heard

The Central Government were so focused on making Auckland into an economic powerhouse that they lost sight of what the people who live in Auckland want.

Unfortunately for them, the ‘local’ in local government was stronger in some parts of Auckland than they has counted on, and in many parts of Auckland Councils and communities united to defend against Hide’s model which threatened to destroy the partnerships they had worked so hard for.

Aucklanders make their voices heard

“We are not opposed to the idea of being part of a ‘super-city’ and recognise that if it’s done well it will bring some bene"ts. But change has to work for all the people of Auckland, not just for Rodney Hide and the interests of big business.”

- Tony Mayow

“The Royal Commission’s proposal took 18 months to prepare, cost millions of dollars and drew on the wisdom of both ordinary Aucklanders and governance experts. The report wasn’t perfect but it was a damn good start.# Rodney Hide’s sham version that he’s forcing on Auckland was thrown together in just three days. Make no mistake, the people of Auckland are waking up to exactly what this means and they don’t like it”

- Penny Hulse

Despite this, the changes have happened and we are now one city

Auckland CouncilCCOsLocal Boards

17

21

Regional CouncilCity CouncilsDistrict CouncilsCommunity Boards

143

30

before

after

Is bigger really better though?Seduced by the potential for e#cency in centralised operations, the Central Government’s model for Auckland’s governance has left worrisome gaps between the Council and its people. Just look at the numbers:

20 Councillors + 1 Mayor serving a population of 1.4 million= a representative to constituent ratio of 1:70 000

Even the local boards, intended to be $agships of local democracy, have a representation ratio of 1:10 000

In a world where internationally jurisdictions start to worrying when ratios tip the 1:1000 mark....

Peter McKinlay blog, local government consultant. MDL

It’s no wonder that public apathy abounds...

“The whole super city is turning into a big fat mess. There will be in "ghting between the government and the Council because each will be trying to put their views forward. Who wins? Well I guess time will tell and the people will have to put up with it as usual because they are too disempowered”

Response to NZ Herald Article ‘Hide Plans Liveable City for Trucks’

At a time when Auckland is centralising and disenfranchising,

the rest of the world is talking about localising and engaging

“Perhaps its time for New Zealand’s politicians to have a hard look at what is happening internationally and why. First they would "nd that representation is generally regarded not as a cost to be minimised, but as an essential element in the key role of local government, the delivery of local democracy.

- Peter McKinleyLocal Government Expert

It is our assertion thatThe new Auckland Council was designed with little thought to the key role of local government, and that there is a massive job still to come in designing, de"ning and communicating that role if Auckland is going to become the city we all want it to be.

2. The changing role of local

government and the possibilities for the new Auckland Council

2. The changing role of local

government and the possibilities for the new Auckland Council


list of concerns that has plagued local government in NZ and

contributed to an ‘identity crisis’Historically viewed as the ‘poor relation’ of the public sector

Major decisions made for them not by them – local government not always a!orded the opportunity to think for itself

Local government is usually dealing with the day to day – the urgent crowds out the important

What does local government aim to achieve? No one knows

Councils have long-term plans, but the local government sector does not have a strategic long-term direction for implementing them

Many of the key issues faced by the sector are role related

This is certainly going to be the case as the new Auckland Council attempts to position itself next to its creator – central government

It has been standard in countries such as New Zealand, Australia and England to regard local government as primarily a service delivery organization.

It’s the di!erence between what paying your rates gets you – and

what your vote should get youService in a local government context should go far beyond the housekeeping function of providing local infrastructure and services to property.

It encompasses representation, advocacy and above all leadership both locally and externally – it should be seen primarily from a governance perspective rather than simply a functional one.

The ‘functional’ service perspective of local government misses the

point about the nature of the services it delivers

Services matter, but the overarching business of local government in the world we now live in is governance – providing community leadership and working with its communities to determine their preferred futures and how best to realise those.

This is where it can "nd true relevance again.

“Local government is not distinguished by the services it provides, important though they are to its working. Other bodies can, and in some cases do, provide those services. It is distinguished by its basis in local democracy and this is where it gains legitimacy”.

- Prof John Stewart, Birmingham University

This might sound idealistic but one of New Zealand’s biggest civic success stories transformed itself this way…

In an ideal world...

Waitakere City gained international recognition from its insight that public services should re$ect a democratic understanding and mandate.

In the case of the Waitakere City Council it was to live up to the sustainability principles of Agenda 21 the leaders had been elected on, with the mandate to act as an Eco City.

Attaining true democracy

The Eco City vision was about collboratively working together to "nd the best possible solutions in the best interest of the community

“It’s never been about tree-hugging. It’s been about smart, sustainable, thinking and being focussed on the outcome and delivery. No council in New Zealand has a stronger social agenda than us and I’m very proud of that. “

- Bob HarveyFormer Mayor of Waitakere City

Not just about the environment Ditching the top-down approach to unlock ‘people power’

Ditching the top-down approach to unlock ‘people power’

I have often said that New Zealanders will do anything if you ask them but nothing if you tell them. So it has been important that every step of the way we have consulted and taken the community with us.”

- Bob HarveyFormer Mayor of Waitakere City

The $agship Eco City initiativeProject Twin Streams

Project Twin Streams is a 9-year initiative designed to tackle stormwater problems of $ooding and pollution in streams in Waitakere City. It is radically di!erent from any other such initiative because of its large scale and unique approach to restoring our streams.

Instead of a top down model putting in regulations and hiring contractors to replant the streambanks, Project Twin Streams contracted 4 community organisations to deliver the project by engaging neighbourhoods in their area. Since 2003, close to a million native trees and shrubs have been planted by over 30,000 volunteer attendances.

At the heart of Project Twin Streams is an approach that puts local people

at the centre of thinking and action.

“Twin Streams isn’t just an environmental project, it’s about bringing communities together and

neighbourhoods taking ownership of their surroundings.“

Harry O’RourkeFormer CEO, Waitakere City Council

A world leader In 2007 Project Twin Streams came runner-up in the International Theiss Riverprize Awards - widely recognised as the most prestigious environmental awards in the world. Since then it has won six national awards for its innovative approach.

Critical success has come from engaging local community organisations to deliver the programme in their area; removing the distinction between community and council in delivering positive outcomes for local residents.

In the new Auckland, governance should come in two forms

Firstly, the inherently local function of governing communities at a relatively micro level, ensuring strong local identities continue to prosper without a dedicated local Council

Secondly, the reason we amalgamated in the "rst place, for strong civic leadership at a metropolitan level - a vital but much neglected local government ‘service’

These are both massive challenges for the Auckland Council

However forces are combining to promote a new understanding of the potential of local government to succeed at both these levels:

1. A growing awareness of the problems with ‘top down’ design and delivery of social services

2. The global "nancial crisis and resulting "scal environment

Services are designed and delivered too far from the communities whose needs they are intended to meet, and so are inadequately informed by the local knowledge and networks needed to be truly e!ective.

this has provided the incentive to look more closely at how major services are designed and delivered, and the importance of working collaboratively in ‘local clusters’ with local government playing the critical pivotal role, and on the unique knowledge and networks (business and community) it is best placed to access.

In England this thinking has seen a number of major new initiatives

emergeTotal Place - a policy initiative intended to break down the silo approach of departmental control in favour of local collaboration

The Cooperative Council – which proposes a shift in the way the council and its communities relate to each other in the delivery of its services

http://www.google.co.nz/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=total+place

http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/Services/CouncilDemocracy/MakingADi!erence/TheCooperativeCouncil/SharingPowerNewSettlementCitizensState.htm

This shift in the role of local government is a huge opportunity for the new Auckland Council to give itself relevance in the eyes

of both the public and central government A successful Auckland Council should be known for its collaborative leadership, whether at the level of the local neighborhood or the metropolitan community.

It is a role based on local governments unique potential to bring together di!erent interests and stakeholders, and the unique knowledge and networks they possess. Providing genuine leadership to its communities, often in collaboration with others who also play a governance role – not just with the public sector but the private sector too.

The current leadership has already started on this quest

A ‘Collaborative Council’ is really the only solution

To deliver both community outcomes and metropolitan progress Auckland requires collaboration on an unprecedented level.

$$$ from new types on investment including Public Private Partnerships

Active citizen participation and engagement for community resilience

Its about evolving for local government to be what it needs to be:

INDEPENDENTLY CONSULTATIVELY COOPERATIVELY COLLABORATIVELY

To conclude, a perspective from a UK think-piece ‘The Engagement Ethic’

gives weight to why this approach to local government is so important now

“Public services have learned a great deal from approaches imported from Big Business, to the bene"t of service users. In particular, the focus on citizens as consumers and on the performance of service units has improved outcomes. However, these approaches are subject to diminishing returns. And the credit crunch and "scal crisis has freed our political imagination that this is the only game in town.

Today, the biggest challenge public services face is the challenge of engaging citizens and service users and harnessing their energy and creativity. This is at the heart of challenges of services’ cost e!ectiveness and legitimacy.”

Fortunately we can look to what’s happening internationally...

2. The Big Society and what it could

mean for Auckland



David Cameron’s Big Society“The Big Society is about a huge culture change, where people, in their everyday lives, in their homes, in their neighbourhoods, in their workplace, don’t always turn to o#cials, local authorities or central government for answers to the problems they face but instead feel both free and powerful enough to help themselves and their own communities.”

“We need to create communities with oomph – neighbourhoods who are in charge of their own destiny, who feel if they club together and get involved they can shape the world around them.”

- David Cameron, UK Prime Minister

But what is the Big Society really?

It aims to:1. Give communities more powers (localism and devolution)2. Encourage people (and corporate citizens) to take an active role in their communities

(volunteerism)3. Support co-ops, mutuals, charities and social enterprises4. Publish government data and involve citizen in decision making (open/transparent

government)

The rhetoric has been backed with action:1. Transfering power from central to local government (localism bill)2. The establishment of the#Big Society Bank, which will help "nance social enterprises,

charities and voluntary groups; the training of community organisers; and the creation of a National Citizen Service program.

It might look like ideologically driven cost cutting strategy, at its heart though its research informed belief in the need to rebalance the relationship between government, local government and the community.

The Big Society Network projectsThe Big Lunch is an annual one-day get together in your local area with your neighbourhood.

Your Square Mile will be a mutual and on/o%ine platform to enable local action.

The Big Society Network is working with NESTA and the PB Unit to promote local engagement on council budgets.

Starting with a small group of volunteers, Abundance has pioneered urban fruit harvesting around the UK.http://thebigsociety.co.uk/big-society-in-action/abundance/

http://thebigsociety.co.uk/big-society-in-action/ylb/

http://thebigsociety.co.uk/big-society-in-action/ysm/

http://thebigsociety.co.uk/big-society-in-action/the-big-lunch/

With it being Manifestation time (an election year) in NZ the Big Society

model should look mighty tempting to our politicians looking for a vision...

Local government in Auckland has the opportunity to take the lead in this discussion and de"ne their role and show their relevance in the process. There is a real hunger for this new way from the grassroots; a way which is intimately understood by the current Mayor and Deputy Mayor

http://www.ced.org.nz/?page_id=887

It is a vision no one can argue with, however it is about bringing about

major cultural and systemic change whereby mainstream society does

think of themselves as citizens again – and ask that of their leaders too

2. The revolution will be digitalised - starting the citizen renaissance

online



The digital revolution which fuels the digital democracy

provides a fundamental change to the brainscape and brandscape within which we all navigate. This revolution interlinks with sustainability challenges and culture shift in a fascinating and world-changing way.

“The Digital revolution allows Citizens to re-calibrate how they view the world”

Digital Democracy and The Rise Of Accountability and Transparency

citizen renaissance.com

Transaction vs InteractionCentral government and big business actions that target change do so within an ongoing central command and control structure – they do not share the passion for grassroots involvement.

Conversely the genius of web 2.0 style social productions systems, highly relevant to sustainability, recognise the solution lies in each and everyone of us working together

- John GrantCo-opportunity

Democratic digital engagement as a blueprint for Local Government

How local democracy can be made more engaging, exciting and meaningful to local people:

Using social media to make a bridge between the formal world of local politics and the real world of real peopleMaking clear that local government is not just about services – distinct and democratic role with local councilors at the heartSocial media is changing the way the world works and can be a potent tool for increased and more productive engagementBuilding on the traditional ways of doing things and using online tools to make them work better and reach more people

Digital democracy is good for everyone

It can create the ideal scenario where bottom up and top down meet in the middle constructively.

It recognises that we are no longer passive viewers but collaborative generators and users of information. In this way social media can be an e%cient information channel for citizens, sta! and elected representatives.

How it can be realised as a tool for local government

1. Online CouncillorsCouncillors are the human element of local democratic process and are the elected link between the council and the people who elected them.

2. Direct DemocracyAs traditional political parties are seen as out of touch with the real world, independent candidates are pushing the envelope - crowd sourcing every vote with people in their constituency.

3. Social Council MeetingsThis means making agendas, minutes and reports palatable to citizens - the arcane language of council won’t work on facebook. The information needs to easy to engage with and real-time.

4. Local Democratic NetworksPlaces where people can nominate concerns they want addressed by elected representatives, which are then ranked and voted on to decide top priorities.

http://www.digitaldemocracy.org.uk/

Themes of local digital democracy Connectability Customizability Sociability Accessibility Openness

But what about ACTIONABILITY?


As ‘The Projects” it is our belief that "nding compelling and captivating common projects is key to kick starting civic participation and meaningful collaboration – using online to create tribes of action…

“A good polity is one in which all citizens believe they are bound together in a common project”

- Richard Sennett, The Culture of New Capitalism


“If we want to create new forms of civic value, we need to improve the ability of small groups to try radical things”

- Clay ShirkyCognitive Surplus

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10675403

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Auckland Council Auckland Council Immersion Session : Insight and understanding to inform communications pitch to the Auckland Council