The electronic magazine from the New Zealand Society of Local Government Managers
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The electronic magazine from the New Zealand Society of Local Government Managers
PulseApril 2008
Hotu Manawa
11 years of awards
Conference 2008
Rates model results
SOLGMPO Box 5538,Lambton Quay,8th Floor, Civic Assurance House,114-118 Lambton Quay,Wellington,New Zealand
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The electronic magazine from the New Zealand Society of Local Government Managers
Contents
PulseApril 2008
Hotu Manawa
Contents People in this issue include Tanya Winter, Ray Andrew and Don Day
NEWS
Conference 2008: 7-9 September, Paihia, Bay of Islands
Five awards: 2008 Overseas Manager Exchanges
Lakes heaven: 45 South turns it on in Queenstown
Beat to the retreat: SOLGM bikers take two-wheel track
Janice Nadew: New Marketing and Communications Advisor
MWH International Conference Attendance Awards announced
Recent Chief Executive appointments
AGENDA
Model results: Independent Inquiry into Rating
Executive Committee Election 2008: Call for nominations for President and two Vice Presidents
Plenty on agenda: Strategic Planning Working Party
More prizes: Recruitment and Retention Programme developments
What’s hot: Good practice toolkits
New modules: Risk Management and Legal Compliance Programme
Six showcased: 2008 Leading Practices Symposium
Filling the gaps: Strategy and policy courses target skill shortages
National Office Diary
IN PARTNERSHIP
The LGITO: Improving the people in local government
Change afoot?: A competitive insurance market
New system: Queenstown Lakes invests in new technology
New look: New Zealand Post Management Excellence Awards
Eleven years: New Zealand Post Management Excellence Awards
RMA plans: Councils ill-prepared to
evaluate plan effectiveness
1 July looms: New addressing standards for bulk mail
Briefing offer: Performance excellence in local government
VIEWPOINT
Brain food: ICMA annual conference, Pittsburgh, October 2007
‘Green centre’: ICMA annual conference, Pittsburgh, October 2007
TRAINING
From the SOLGM Opus Business School
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Page 1 of 2
Conference 2008By Alistair DrakeConvenorConference Organising Committee
A very active Organising Committee
is enthusiastically working to ensure
that this year’s SOLGM Conference
in the Bay of Islands is every bit as
good, if not better, than previous
SOLGM Conferences.
2008 is the 20th year since the
establishment of SOLGM on 1
January 1988. This anniversary will
also be a cause to celebrate at the
Conference.
The Conference theme is
“Community Sustainability and
Wellbeing in an Uncertain Future”.
Under this theme, the Organising
Committee’s indicative thinking is
for four distinct sessions followed by
breakout workshops around:
• promoting social wellbeing;
• promoting environmental
wellbeing;
• promoting cultural wellbeing; and
• promoting economic wellbeing.
This will be followed by a session
dealing with their integration.
At this stage, keynote and other
speakers are being sourced to
address the four wellbeing sessions.
There will, however, be at least
three speakers of high international
calibre. These will be augmented and
complemented of course by some of
our own expert practitioners.
The Topp Twins are being sourced as
entertaining MCs.
We will provide you with updates on
other speakers as the programme
SOLGMPO Box 5538,Lambton Quay,8th Floor, Civic Assurance House,114-118 Lambton Quay,Wellington,New Zealand
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firms up. In this regard, you can also
refer to the Conference website,
www.solgm2008.co.nz.
In the meantime, please note in your
diaries the dates of 7-9 September.
On behalf of the Northern Branch
Conference Organising Committee,
I look forward to meeting you at
the 20th SOLGM Conference in the
picturesque Bay of Islands at the
start of spring.
Page 2 of 2
Conference 2008
Picturesque Paihia.
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Five awards of Overseas Manager
Exchanges were agreed by the
Sector Capability Advisory Board at
its meeting on 14 March.
The exchange with the UK (including
attendance at the SOLACE
Conference in Belfast from 7 to
2008 Overseas Manager Exchanges
Five awards
9 October has been awarded to
Peter Guerin, Chief Executive of
Rotorua District Council. The award
is sponsored by Jardine Lloyd
Thompson.
The exchange with British Columbia
was especially keenly sought after.
This has been awarded to Susan
Jones, Human Resources and
Administration Manager at Gore
District Council. The exchange
includes attendance at the annual
conference of LGMA British Columbia
in Prince George from 17 to 19 June.
The award is also sponsored by
Jardine Lloyd Thompson Ltd.
The exchange to the United States
has been awarded to Robert
Mallinson, Corporate Services
Manager for West Coast Regional
Council. The exchange includes
Page 1 of 2Peter Guerin Susan Jones Robert Mallinson
SOLGMPO Box 5538,Lambton Quay,8th Floor, Civic Assurance House,114-118 Lambton Quay,Wellington,New Zealand
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2008 Overseas Manager Exchanges
Five awardsattendance at the ICMA Conference
in Richmond Virginia from 21 to
24 September. This exchange is
sponsored by Civic Assurance.
The exchange to New South Wales
has been awarded to Jeff Kivell,
Programme Manager Infrastructure
Services for Taupo District Council.
The exchange includes attendance
at the LGMA New South Wales
State Conference in Penrith from
17 to 19 September. This exchange
is sponsored by Jardine Lloyd
Thompson.
The exchange to Queensland has
been awarded to David Clapperton,
Strategic and Corporate Services
Manager for Horowhenua District
Council. The exchange includes
attendance at the LGMA Queensland
State Conference in Townsville from
21 to 24 October. This exchange
Jeff Kivell
David Clapperton
Page 2 of 2
is sponsored by Jardine Lloyd
Thompson.
New Zealand visitors
In addition SOLACE and LGMA,
British Columbia has also chosen
its exchange managers who will
visit New Zealand about the time
of the SOLGM Conference in early
September. Visiting from the UK
will be Michael Turvey, who is Chief
Executive of Christchurch Borough
in Dorset. Coming from Canada will
be Stan Westby, Chief Administrative
Officer for the City of Powell River.
The exchange partners to visit New
Zealand from the US, Queensland
and New South Wales are chosen
later in the year.
SOLGMPO Box 5538,Lambton Quay,8th Floor, Civic Assurance House,114-118 Lambton Quay,Wellington,New Zealand
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Page 1 of 2
By Tanya Winter45 South Branch President
They came by air, land and
sea – well, not quite.
But some SOLGM
45 South branch
members did
arrive at the 2008
Queenstown retreat
by motorcycle.
The group, organised
by Michael Ross,
took the scenic route
through beautiful
Central Otago and
Southland,
to arrive
refreshed,
energised
and mostly in
one piece for
the couple of
days ahead. (See separate article on
page 9).
With a programme arranged
to balance the serious
stuff with the more
thought provoking,
Steve Parry and Susan
Jones of Gore District
Council put together a
stimulating and varied
two days, allowing ample
time for networking
and experiencing all
Queenstown has to
offer.
While not
wanting
to
single
out
any
one
guest speaker, Jenny Shipley’s
address on the morning of the
first day set the scene in a global
context, and was a highlight for me.
Jenny’s quiet strength and candid
revelations about her life beyond
central government politics were
inspirational and insightful.
Greg O’Connor, President of the
New Zealand Police Association,
spoke passionately about policing
in our communities. His sometimes
brutally honest account of the crime,
particularly through gangs, sweeping
through all communities, provoked
an interesting panel discussion on
the second day, where he was joined
by MP for Otago Jacqui Dean and
Queenstown Lakes District Council
Mayor Clive Geddes.
Lakes heaven45 South turns it on in Queenstown
SOLGMPO Box 5538,Lambton Quay,8th Floor, Civic Assurance House,114-118 Lambton Quay,Wellington,New Zealand
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Lakes heaven45 South turns it on in Queenstown
Feedback from evaluations at the conclusion of the retreat were positive, with plenty of suggestions for next time. One person made the comment: “I can’t understand why more SOLGM members don’t attend these retreats. I consider it the best value for money, networking and development I have experienced.”
Page 2 of 2
Tawera Nikau’s story of the
challenges he has faced was set
against a rugby league way of life,
where not giving up and being
the best you can be are core to
everything he does. Tawera’s
commitment to supporting young
people through the work he does
– mainly voluntary – is admirable.
Political commentator Chris Trotter
rounded the retreat off and mapped
the political landscape from
“that famous Brash speech
at Orewa” to the upcoming
elections. The links he made
between Star Wars and
politics were enlightening.
This man was sharper than
Darth Vader’s light sabre!
Feedback from evaluations
at the conclusion of the
retreat were positive, with
plenty of suggestions for next time.
One person made the comment: “I
can’t understand why more SOLGM
members don’t attend these retreats.
I consider it the best value for
money, networking and development
I have experienced.”
The next 45 South Branch retreat
is in Wanaka on 7-9 February, 2010.
Diary it now!
SOLGMPO Box 5538,Lambton Quay,8th Floor, Civic Assurance House,114-118 Lambton Quay,Wellington,New Zealand
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By Michael Ross
Honda rider
In seven years of owning my Honda, I have never had to experience the ignominy of picking it up off the road. In covering 1600km in three days, I guess you would have to expect some excitement! But more on that later.
The first ever SOLGM “Beat to the Retreat” gathered in Geraldine around lunchtime on the Friday before the Queenstown retreat. We had come from points around the South Island and one of our number had ridden down from Wellington.
The weather was hot and dry as we headed through the rolling downlands to Fairlie. Over Burkes Pass and the McKenzie country greeted us with a characteristic norwesterly blast. I thought at the time that this would bring some
Beat to the retreatSOLGM bikers take two-wheel track
Michael Ross, Eugene Bowen and Brian Lester rest the saddle sores.
Page 1 of 4
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excitement – and so it did.
After fueling at Tekapo we headed up the steep climb to the Mt John Observatory, where a new café has opened. The wind on top blew the froth off our lattes as we sat and contemplated the advancing dark clouds from the south.
The rain began once we dropped down to Lake Pukaki, having enjoyed the freedom of the private road on the Meridian canal. Despite a patient wait at the Wrinkly Ram in Omarama, it did not relent and continued all the way down the Waitaki Valley to Oamaru.
We were all soaked when we arrived at home. However Susie had done a great job on the dinner and with a few of Steve Green’s Carrick Pinot Noir on board, we were soon back in full spirit.
Given the programme for the next
day – Saturday – the nightlife in Oamaru was forsaken for a relatively early bed.
Saturday 1 February – Oamaru-Invercargill-Te Anau
Saturday dawned fine and clear. We headed down the coast road to Kakanui and Waianakarua, and then took to the coast again from Karitane, Seacliff and Warrington before avoiding the Northern Motorway into Dunedin – preferring the challenges to the windy Mt Cargill road over the summit and down into Dunedin.
Another round of coffees, this time at the Otago Museum Café.
On south to Brighton, and again we followed the coast through to Taieri Mouth and up and over the newly sealed road to Lake Waihola. Terrific views, good cruising and a minor woops as one of our number lost
traction in the loose chip and left a mirror on the roadway.
“Good thing that thick black leather,” he reckoned.
Further south in Balclutha. We lunched at Peggydale with some old friends who were keen to join our group and show us the way through their patch – the Southern Scenic Route through the Catlins and on to Invercargill. This is a great ride and requires full concentration to stay in sync with the tight corners all through the Catlins State Forest. After a quick re-fuel in Invercargill we continued on for refreshments at the Pavilion at Colac Bay – part of that great sweep of the Southern tip of the South Island – where the big westerly swells seem sent directly from Australia.
Beat to the retreatSOLGM bikers take two-wheel track
Page 2 of 4
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Along Te Waewae Bay, through the town of Tuatapere then over Blackmount, down past the Takitimus and into the Te Anau basin. We stopped at the Manapouri Tavern, the western-most bar in New Zealand, before knocking over the final leg of the Saturday ride into Te Anau itself. Another 600km day – lots of country and some wonderful stretches of kiwi roads – with no traffic in sight and hot weather to boot.
A few single malts and then out to the restaurant. A lot of laughs and smiles over the journey so far and intense discussion around the merits of one bike against another – and of course the road surface – as per brief. And the waitress – what waitress?
Sunday 2 February – Te Anau-Milford-Queenstown
Nature calls or looking for directions? Members of the motorcycle road trip take a break on the road to Queenstown.
Beat to the retreatSOLGM bikers take two-wheel track
Page 3 of 4
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The clouds were starting to roll in on the Sunday morning so we headed west early on the Milford Road, keen to avoid any more rain (Friday had cured us of that!). We flew through some of the most spectacular country you can possibly experience. Indeed, Peter Mitchell in his book Great Escapes rates it as the best ride in the world. I would agree, apart from that switchback on the climb back up to the tunnel, but more on that later.
Brunch in the Milford Café, another coffee and the rain stayed away. We took the obligatory shots of the view, but our focus was the road – the sweep through the next bend with the bike heeled right over in seeming defiance of natural balance. But that is all part of the thrill of it, until that is, you decide to look backwards and lose your concentration on the task ahead.
Beat to the retreatSOLGM bikers take two-wheel track
Which is why I ended up picking my ego and my bike off the chip seal by the mouth of the Homer Tunnel.
A bit of Joan’s duct tape on the cowling and we were away again, down the other side of the tunnel. Down the past the Hollyford, over the Cascade Saddle and down the Eglington Valley and back into the great open space of the wonderful Te Anau basin.
A venison pie at the Bracken Hall Café in Mossburn was next on the
list, before heading north through to Five Rivers, Garston, Kingston and finally to our hotel in Queenstown.
We were there – 1560km, lots of coffees and laughs later. We’d done it. A great high-speed inspection of some of the best roading infrastructure New Zealand has to offer the keen local government manager.
Next time – will you be there? Let’s see how the repairs go, but I would do it all again, just like last time, in a flash!
We flew through some of the most spectacular country you can possibly experience. Indeed, Peter Mitchell in his book Great Escapes rates it as the best ride in the world.
Page 4 of 4
SOLGMPO Box 5538,Lambton Quay,8th Floor, Civic Assurance House,114-118 Lambton Quay,Wellington,New Zealand
Tel: 04 978 1280Fax: 04 978 1285Email: [email protected]
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Janice NadewNew Marketing and Communications Advisor
Page 1 of 2
Janice Nadew joins our team at National Office as Marketing and Communications Advisor on 21 April.
She brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in this new position. Janice has worked in advertising, marketing and corporate communications both in the private and not-for-profit sectors.
Janice holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Organisational Communication from De La Salle University in the Philippines, and a Master of Arts Degree in International Communication from Macquarie University in Australia.
Before joining the Society, Janice worked with the New Zealand Childcare Association, where she took on various marketing and communication projects that
included the rollout of new brand
identity, implementing marketing
campaigns and managing
website redevelopment. She was
also involved in press release
writing, stakeholder and internal
communications and producing the
Association’s quarterly newsletter.
“Communications is integral in
every organization,” Janice says.
“It is not about spinning messages.
It is about delivering a clear,
distinct and relevant message to
your audience. Listening to your
audience before constructing the
message and selecting the right
channel are essential ingredients
to effective communication.”
Janice hopes to make a significant
contribution to the Society. She
believes that marketing and
communication can support
the organisation to achieve its
SOLGMPO Box 5538,Lambton Quay,8th Floor, Civic Assurance House,114-118 Lambton Quay,Wellington,New Zealand
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Janice NadewNew Marketing and Communications Advisor
business goals.
“I look forward to this new challenge and having the opportunity to make a difference,” she says.
She is also enthusiastic to learn about management and best practices in local government. She believes that empowering these communities will contribute to a better New Zealand.
Janice moved to New Zealand with her husband in 2006 to have a more relaxed lifestyle. She has spent most of her life in the Philippines, her home country, and lived in Australia for a couple of years while completing her post-graduate studies. She also lived in Ethiopia for a few months to gain work experience in development
Page 2 of 2
MWH International Conference Attendance Awards announced
On 31 March, the SOLGM Executive awarded two MWH-sponsored awards, to attend the Local Government Managers Australia National Congress on the Gold Coast on 25-26 May, to:
• Tamsin Evans, Strategic Projects Manager, Kapiti Coast District Council; and
• Antoinette Campbell, Community Services Manager, Hastings District Council.
The awards are each valued at $1050 plus GST. SOLGM greatly appreciates the sponsorship by MWH of these awards to assist SOLGM members widen their horizons through attending international events for local government managers such as this Congress. In June, applications for the three MWH-sponsored awards to attend the ICMA Conference in Richmond, Virginia, on 21-24 September, will be called for.
SOLGMPO Box 5538,Lambton Quay,8th Floor, Civic Assurance House,114-118 Lambton Quay,Wellington,New Zealand
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Rodger Kerr-Newell, former Chief Executive of New Plymouth District
Council, has been appointed Chief Executive at Rodney District Council.
Rodger took up the position on 3 March and replaces Vijaya Vaidyanath,
who recently became Chief Executive at Waitakere City Council.
Ross McLeod, former Director, Corporate and Civic Services, Waitakere City
Council, has been appointed Chief Executive of Hastings District Council.
Ross took up the position on 11 February. He replaces Murray Gilbertson,
who retired.
Michael Willis, former Chief Executive at Palmerston North City Council,
SOLGM President and also Chief Executive at Blue Mountains City Council in
New South Wales, began as Chief Executive of Surrey Heath Council in the
UK last December.
Recent Chief Executive appointments
Agenda
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Model resultsSOLGM has continued to make
a major commitment to the
Government’s process for making
decisions on the recommendations
made by the Independent Inquiry
into Rating.
During March SOLGM and Local
Government New Zealand published
No Magic Answers. This report
focuses on the recommendations
that the Inquiry made in relation
to rating tools – that is the set
of recommendations focused on
achieving what the Inquiry saw
as a fair sharing of rates burdens
within communities, as opposed to
those that might reduce the overall
reliance of local authorities on rates
as a source of revenue.
The report sets out the results of
modeling undertaken by 20 local
authorities to assess the possible
effects of the recommendations. The
recommendations concerned were:
• the abolition of powers to levy a uniform annual general charge (UAGC);
• the abolition of powers to levy general rates on a differential basis;
• strong encouragement for local authorities to switch to the capital value system;
• strong encouragement for local authorities to introduce volumetric charging (metering) for water supply and wastewater disposal.
The councils were asked to model
the effects of four scenarios
involving the implementation of
these recommendations. While the
exercise is inherently a hypothetical
one, it is seen as providing a
generally accurate picture of what Page 1 of 2
Agenda
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s there might also be some shift in rates from lower-valued properties to higher-valued properties as a result of the abolition of the UAGC where this mechanism is currently used.
• In provincial and rural New Zealand
s the recommendations generally create shifts from urban ratepayers (both residential and commercial) to the rural sector.
• Overall, it appears that the commercial sector would be the clear “winners” if these recommendations were implemented, with the rural sector the clear “losers”, and the impact on residential property owners is more mixed.
The full report can be downloaded
from www.solgm.co.nz/Other+
SOLGM+Good+Practice+Material/
Rating+Inquiry.htm
The Government has also sought
reports from officials on a wide
range of the other groups of
recommendations made by the
inquiry.
the impacts of implementing these
recommendations would be. The
headline results were:
• In metropolitan New Zealand
s the recommendations generally create shifts in rates from the commercial/industrial sector to the residential sector and, to a lesser extent the rural sector;
s the extent of the shifts varied from moderate to extreme in nature, depending on the extent to which existing rating systems resembled those envisaged by the inquiry;
s this headline shift in incidence can be traced to the abolition of differential rates (in most metropolitan local authorities commercial properties are currently paying a higher rate in the dollar than residential);
Independent Inquiry into Rating
Model results
Page 2 of 2
Agenda
SOLGMPO Box 5538,Lambton Quay,8th Floor, Civic Assurance House,114-118 Lambton Quay,Wellington,New Zealand
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All SOLGM Members
President and Vice President Positions
Notice is hereby given that an
election is to be held for Officers
of the Executive of the Society
(President and two Vice Presidents)
in accordance with Rule 11 of the
Constitution and Rules of the
Society.
Nomination papers must be in
writing, signed by the proposer,
seconder and the candidate.
A pen portrait of the candidate must
accompany the Nomination paper.
It is important that you refer to the
guidance notes in your preparation
of the pen portrait to ensure it fits
within our printing specification.
Executive Committee Election 2008
Call for Nominations for President and Two Vice Presidents
The Nomination Form is shown over.
Potential candidates may request
further information regarding these
positions. In the first instance we
recommend you discuss this with
your current Branch Executive
representative, or you may contact
the Chief Executive on
ph 04 972 1282.
In accordance with Rule 11.2 of the
Society’s Constitution, Nomination
Papers are to be in the hands of
the Chief Executive by 5pm on
Wednesday 30 April 2008.
Branch Executive Committee Positions
Members should note that Branch
Secretaries, under Rule 12.3 of
the Constitution and Rules, will
soon be calling for nominations for
Branch Elected Executive positions.
Branch nominations must be with
your Branch Secretary by 5pm on
Wednesday 30 April 2008.
David Smith
SOLGM Chief Executive
31 March 2008
Page 1 of 3
Agenda
SOLGMPO Box 5538,Lambton Quay,8th Floor, Civic Assurance House,114-118 Lambton Quay,Wellington,New Zealand
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Executive Committee Election 2008
Nomination Form
We the undersigned Members of the New Zealand Society of
Local Government Managers Inc hereby nominate:
Full Name: (Print)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Local Authority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
with his/her consent, as a candidate for the office of:
President (tick choice)
Vice President
Proposer: Full Name: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Local Authority: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Signature: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Seconder: Full Name: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Local Authority: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Signature: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
I, (Full Name). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
hereby consent to this nomination.
Local Authority: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Signature: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A pen portrait is attached Yes (tick choice)
No
Dated this . . . . . . . . . day of April 2008
Notes:
1 To be valid, this form must be returned to the Chief
Executive, SOLGM, PO Box 5538, Wellington, by mail or
placed in his hands, by 5pm Wednesday, 30 April 2008.
2 No late nominations will be accepted.
3 Please see over for Guidance Notes on pen portraits.
4 Nominations without pen portraits will be circulated as a
name only.
Call for Nominations for President and Two Vice Presidents
Page 2 of 3
Agenda
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Hotu Manawa
Guidance Notes on Candidate Pen Portraits
1 Candidates are required to provide a Pen Portrait with their Nomination. This must be provided within the application period ending 30 April 2008 – by mail (fax is not acceptable).
2 Pen Portrait (first person) statement of a Candidate’s
• relevant qualifications for the position
• industry, SOLGM and/or other professional society experience and leadership
• personal attitude to the position and ability to serve actively
• intentions, or aspirations, for the future development and work of the Society.
3 The Pen Portrait should be approximately 250-400 words in length. It may include a passport photo of the candidate. It shall not exceed an A4 page.
4 Presentation: Pen Portraits are photocopied from the original material supplied by the candidate. They must be presented on plain white paper, neatly typed, borders of 2.5cm, preferably in
font Arial size 10 (this font and size),
or using a similarly sized, sans serif, alternative. It should be mailed, unfolded, not faxed. It should be displayed as follows:
5 Heading: centred, in capital letters, in bold type, size 12:
PEN PORTRAIT
(CANDIDATE’S FULL NAME)
[turn down one line only]
Details . . .
Call for Nominations for President and Two Vice Presidents
Page 3 of 3
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PulseApril 2008
Hotu Manawa Strategic Planning Working Party
Plenty on agendaThe Strategic Planning Working
Party met at the offices of
Wellington City Council on 22
February. The main focus of the WP
over the coming period will be on:
• the Community Outcomes guide
for the “2009 and Beyond” suite;
• overseeing the development of
the programme for the 2008
Community Plan conference;
• a guidance piece on “taking a
sustainable development approach
and the 2009 LTCCP”;
• investigating the feasibility of an
online resource library or portal
for resources for local authority
strategic planners;
• assessing whether there is a
need for guidance around climate
change and the 2009 LTCCP.
Community Outcomes Guide
The Planned Community Outcomes
Guide for the “2009 and Beyond”
series was originally scheduled
to be completed by the end of
February 2008. However, work was
interrupted by the focus in late 2007
on work for the “2009 and Beyond”
seminars and more recently by
the commitment of team members
to work relating to their councils’
annual plans. The project will start
again in early April with a revised
due date of early July.
2008 Community Plan Conference
Planning has started for the 2008
Community Plan Conference. A
Steering Group has been set up to
develop the conference programme.
This includes some members of
the WP, along with some of the
volunteers who have been part of
the Steering Groups for previous
conferences. The theme for the
conference is to be “how to get a
strategy-driven LTCCP” – as opposed
to one that merely adds up the
numbers provided by asset and
finance managers.
Feedback from the 2007 conference
highlighted that there is increasingly
a two-tier audience for this
conference. On the one hand, a
significant number of people are
relatively new to local authority
strategic planning roles, and we
expect this will continue to be the
case. On the other hand, there is a
growing group for whom 2009 LTCCP
will be their third such exercise.
The WP considered the suggestion
of a separate “LTCCP master class”
Agenda
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seminar or workshop for the more
experienced practitioners. The WP
was concerned that holding separate
events for the two groups might
mean the opportunity could be
lost for networking and knowledge
transfer between the “old chums”
and the “new hands”, which is seen
as a valuable aspect of the single,
broadly based event.
The WP has asked that for 2008
the Steering Group should aim to
develop a programme which includes
some sessions with separate
streams targeted to the two
groups of people within the single
programme.
The conference will be on 11 and
12 August in Christchurch. The
WP welcomes feedback about its
proposed approach and suggestions
for specific topics that might be
included in the programme. Contact
A sustainable development approach
Part of the Auditor-General’s report
on the 2006 LTCCPs was a report
from an independent reviewer on
the extent to which the LTCCPs
showed evidence of local authorities
“taking a sustainable development
approach” (as per section 14 of the
LGA 2002).
The Auditor-General signaled that he
would also be taking some interest
in this issue in the audit of the 2009
LTCCPs. There is, however, currently
no guidance to local authorities
about what reasonable expectations
might be on this issue.
The WP agreed to develop a
relatively brief guidance piece on
this issue as a supplement to the
Strategic Planning Working Party
Plenty on agenda
Page 2 of 3
current set of “2009 and Beyond”
guides. A project team has been
formed to do this.
We are interested in including
relevant examples of things that
councils either included in their
2006 LTCCPs or are planning
to include in their 2009 LTCCPs
that might be of use to other
local authorities. All offers to
Council-Maori engagement
The WP reviewed the material
developed by Local Government
New Zealand and the Department
of Internal Affairs on council–Maori
engagement. It recommends that
people involved in strategic planning
roles should make themselves
Agenda
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familiar with this. It can be accessed
at http://www.lgnz.co.nz/projects/
LGandMaori/index.html
Local Futures
Dr Claudia Scott attended the meeting to discuss the guidance products the Local Futures project is developing and the potential for SOLGM to play a role in maintaining the products after the project’s funding ceases.
The project is currently developing guides on:
• assessing strategic performance;
• community engagement/consultation; and
• strategic tools.
For further information about Local Futures go to: www.localfutures.ac.nz
Strategic Planning Working Party
Plenty on agenda
Page 3 of 3
Roading New Zealand Conference
Sustainability and People
Duxton Hotel, Wellington
26 August 2008
• International environmental best practice for the construction
and maintenance of New Zealand roads.
• How sustainability and economic growth can happen for New
Zealand infrastructure.
• Valuable secrets of holding and recruiting people into your
organisation and into our sector.
• How we can change the culture of the sector to have everyone
working for the common good.
CONTACT
P: (06) 759-7065
www.nziht.co.nz/roading08
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By Jim HarlandProgramme Sponsor
After the successful introduction of
academic prizes at the universities
of Canterbury and Auckland, I
was very pleased with the SOLGM
Executive Committee’s decision
to introduce five further academic
prizes for 2008/2009.
The current two prizes at
the schools of engineering,
have raised student
awareness of local
government as a career
option. The five new prizes,
worth $1500 each, are
for papers in:
• Environmental Law – Otago University.
• Public Policy – Victoria
University.
• Environmental Science and Management – Waikato University
• Iwi Resource Management – Auckland University of Technology
• Science and Technology – Massey University.
Accompanying the introduction
of the prizes is also a $5000
travelling fund. This will
provide for the travel and
accommodation costs
for local government
practitioners to be
presenters at appropriate
university courses relating to
local government. I believe it
is critical that students get
exposure to this expertise
in the context of their
academic studies. They
will also be inspired by
the diverse backgrounds and careers
that these experienced practitioners
will provide.
Also, $1500 in sponsorship has
been allocated for the landscape
architecture students’ annual
exhibition at Lincoln University.
The above academic prizes and
travelling fund will operate for
two academic years and then be
reassessed for their effectiveness
in providing a higher profile for
local government as a career choice
among students studying courses of
relevance to the sector.
The second Recruitment and
Retention Programme development
relates to the Job Board on
www.localgovernmentcareers.govt.nz.
Page 1 of 2
More prizesRecruitment and Retention Programme Developments
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Since the People Shaping Progress
brand and website was introduced
12 months ago, visits to the website
have been very encouraging.
Between March 2007 and January
2008, just under 20,000 visits
were made to the website by people
seeking information about local
government careers. Over the same
period 683 jobs were advertised on
the Job Board.
In relation to the People Shaping
Progress Job Board, we have
received considerable comment
from local authorities, recruitment
agencies and individuals regarding
the duplication and confusion caused
by the existence within the sector
of three job advertising facilities.
The other two are operated by Local
Government New Zealand and Local
Government Online.
More prizesRecruitment and Retention Programme Developments
This situation has been discussed
with Local Government New Zealand
and Local Government Online.
As a result, I am pleased to advise
that at the Local Government Online
Board meeting on 5 February it was
agreed to merge and rationalise the
three facilities under the People
Shaping Progress brand. Both Local
Government New Zealand’s National
Council and the SOLGM Executive
Committee support this approach.
Arrangements are now being
made to implement the decision
by no later than 1 July this year. I
consider this is a great step for the
sector’s Recruitment and Retention
Programme and the promotion
of People Shaping Progress as
the career brand for the local
government sector.
If you have any ideas on
implementing People Shaping
Progress, please do not hesitate to
contact me at:
(03) 474-3851.
Page 2 of 2
Agenda
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The electronic magazine from the New Zealand Society of Local Government Managers
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What’s hotOver the past three years the Good Practice Toolkits website (www.solgm.co.nz) has grown to host an increasing range of information and good practice material.
With a greater range of material available, traffic has increased. Visits averaged 1645 a month in 2004/05, 3320 a month in 2005/06, 5099 a month in 2006/07, and so far for 2007/08 visits are running at just under 6500 a month.
Monitoring of the site provides an interesting barometer of “what is hot” at any particular time.
November 2007
The major new releases were:
• the new Risk Management and Legal Compliance module on Bylaws (early in the month);
• Dollars and Sense, the Guide to Financial Management Under the Local Government Act 2002, (mid
month); and
• the revised Risk Management and Legal Compliance Privacy Act module (late in the month).
The 2009 and Beyond suite was comprehensively the most popular content group, providing six of the top 10 downloads. The rest of the top five content groups were all recently published Risk Management and Legal Compliance modules. The NZIFRS Questions and Answers document (developed following NZIFRS Preparedness seminars in late 2005) made a spectacular return to popularity.
Top content groups
1. 2009 and Beyond
2. Risk Management and Legal
Compliance Bylaws module
3. Risk Management and Legal Compliance Resource Consents module
4. Risk Management and Legal Compliance Dog Control module
5. Risk Management and Legal Compliance draft module on Decision-making under the LGA2002
Top downloads
1. Performance Management Frameworks – “Your Side of the Deal”, complete guide.
2. “Dollars and Sense” – Financial Management under the Local
Page 1 of 4
Agenda
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Government Act 2002, complete
guide.
3. Pulse November 2007.
4. “Piecing It Together”, complete
guide.
5. Living through the LTCCP, full
version.
6. Legal Compliance Programme
contact list.
7. NZIFRS questions and suggested
answers.
8. Living through the LTCCP,
section 1.
9. Performance Management
Frameworks – “Your Side of the
Deal”, section 1.
10. Code of Good Practice For the
Management of Local Authority
Elections and Polls, Chapter 3
- Electoral Officers and Electoral
Staff.
December 2007
December saw publication of the SOLGM Briefing Paper to the Incoming Minister of Local Government.
The 2009 and Beyond guidance suite continued to be overwhelmingly the most popular content group, and provided five of the six most popular document downloads. There was also a strong showing from the pages on the New Zealand Post Management Excellence Awards. Like Keith Richard, the NZIFRS Questions and Answers package just refuses to lie down and die.
Content groups
1. 2009 and Beyond.
2. New Zealand Post Management Excellence Awards – general pages.
3. New Zealand Post Management Excellence Awards 2007 entries.
4. Shared Services.
5. Risk Management and Legal Compliance draft module on Development Contributions.
Downloads
1. Piecing It Together, complete guide.
2. Performance Management Frameworks – Your Side of the Deal, complete guide.
3. Dollars and Sense, complete guide.
4. Pulse – November 2007 edition
5. Performance Management Frameworks – Your Side of the Deal, chapter 1.
6. Living Through the LTCCP, complete guide.
7. Kaikoura: Green for Growth – case
Good Practice Toolkits
What’s hot
Page 2 of 4
Agenda
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study from 2004 International Leading Practices Symposium.
8. Legal Compliance Programme contact list
9. NZIFRS questions and suggested answers.
10. Pulse – August 2006 edition.
January 2008
With the Christmas break no new material was published during January. 2009 and Beyond material continued to dominate as top content group and provided five of the top nine document downloads. The Briefing Paper to the Incoming Minister proved very popular, and the 2007 New Zealand Post Management Excellence Awards continued to do good business. The NZIFRS Questions and Answers are still up there (at this rate it will be appearing in the next series of Dancing with the Stars).
Content groups
1. 2009 and Beyond.
2. Leading Practices Symposium 2006.
3. New Zealand Post Management Excellence Awards 2007.
4. Risk Management and Legal Compliance draft module on Development Contributions.
5. Risk Management and Legal Compliance Programme, general information pages.
Downloads
1. Performance Management Frameworks – Your Side of the Deal, complete guide.
2. SOLGM Briefing Paper to the Incoming Minister of Local Government.
3. Dollars and Sense, complete guide.
4. Piecing It Together, complete
guide.
5. City of Corpus Christi case study for 2006 International Leading Practices Symposium.
6. Living Through the LTCCP, complete guide.
7. NZIFRS questions and suggested answers.
8. Legal Compliance Programme contact list.
9. Performance Management Frameworks – Your Side of the Deal, chapter 1.
10. Pulse – November 2007 edition.
February 2008
New releases in February were:
• the key presentations from the 2009 and Beyond Seminars;
• presentations from the 2007
Good Practice Toolkits
What’s hot
Page 3 of 4
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Community Plan Conference; and
• revised Risk Management and Legal Compliance Programme modules on
s Property Sales, Leases and Acquisitions, and
s Building Consents.
2009 and Beyond material remains at the top of the heap as top content group and with three of the top 10 downloads. Publication of material from the Community Plan Conference pushed the Strategic Planning Working Party’s page into second place while Simon Markham’s presentation of “Significance under the LGA” from the 2007 Community Planning Conference, featured strongly among the downloads. The revised Risk Management and Legal Compliance Programme –Property module also made a strong start. Meanwhile, the “Queen Mother of
good practice guidance products”, the NZIFRS Questions and Answers, just keeps on keeping on.
Content groups
1. 2009 and Beyond.
2. Strategic Planning Working Party (includes Community Plan conference).
3. New Zealand Post Management Excellence Awards 2007.
4. Risk Management and Legal Compliance Programme, general information pages.
5. Risk Management and Legal Compliance Programme – revised Property module.
Downloads
1. Recruitment and Retention Research Report.
2. Dollars and Sense, complete guide.
3. Performance Management
Frameworks – Your Side of the Deal, complete guide.
4. Pulse – November 2007 edition.
5. NZIFRS questions and suggested answers.
6. SOLGM Briefing Paper to the Incoming Minister of Local Government.
7. The “S” Word Again! – How to Determine Significance; A Local Authority Case Study”, Simon Markham, Waimakariri District Council (from 2007 Community Plan Conference).
8. Financial Management Working Party Newsletter February 2008.
9. Legal Compliance Programme contact list.
10. Living Through the LTCCP, complete guide.
Good Practice Toolkits
What’s hot
Page 4 of 4
Agenda
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The electronic magazine from the New Zealand Society of Local Government Managers
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During February the Legal
Compliance Programme published
revisions of the Property Sales
Acquisitions and Leases, and
Building Consents modules.
This brings to 11 the number of
revised modules published since
August 2007. In addition, the new
bylaws module was published in
November 2007. The publication
of revised material has seen a
spectacular jump in the level of
traffic on the website.
Further revisions of the Health and
Safety, Rates Rebates and National
Dog Database modules are all
expected before the end of June,
along with enhancements to the Dog
Control module and the publication
of a new module on the Rating
Database.
Risk Management and Legal Compliance Programme
New modules
The redevelopment of the
Enforcement module has been
identified as the major priority
for module development work for
2008/09. The existing module was
taken “off air’ during 2007.
The Working Party is keen for the
new module to provide a fuller
treatment of the law around
enforcement action under a range
of key statutes. Decisions on which
areas of enforcement will be dealt
with in detail are yet to be made.
Feedback is sought on which statutes
the focus should be on. People
with views, please contact Don
Mackay at SOLGM National Office
Seminar – Key Risk Management
Issues for Local Government
The Working Party has agreed to
proceed with the organisation of a
seminar on Key Risk Management
Issues for Local Government.
The aim is to provide an annual
forum for local authority staff with
responsibility for risk management
either on an organisation-wide basis,
or within particular high-risk areas.
Page 1 of 2
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A Steering Group comprising
members of the Working Party along
with representatives of Riskpool
and the NZ Risk Management
Society will be developing the
programme, plus volunteers from
local authorities.
Likely areas of focus include:
• LIMS
• Employment
• Enforcement
• Contracting.
We are keen to hear from people
who either:
• have particular issues that
people would like included in the
programme; or
• have done things in the area of
risk management that they believe
would be of general interest and
Risk Management and Legal Compliance Programme
New moduleswhich they would be prepared to
present as case studies.
Please contact Don Mackay at
A date for the seminar is yet to be
fixed but it is likely to be in late July.
Links via intranet
The programme is still aiming
to get all local authorities linked
to the site via their intranets so
that individual staff members do
not have to use the password to
access the module material. If staff
at your local authority still have
to use the password, get your IT
department to contact Don Mackay
([email protected]) and he will
provide “the magic words”.
Page 2 of 2
Agenda
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The electronic magazine from the New Zealand Society of Local Government Managers
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People who attended the 2006
Symposium in Rotorua rated it one
of the best value good practice
shows they had been to.
The programme for the 2008
Symposium is now finalised. The
Symposium is held every second
year as a joint effort by SOLGM,
LGMA (Australia) and ICMA (USA).
This year’s event is on 29 and 30
May, immediately after the LGMA
National Congress on Australia’s
Gold Coast.
The Symposium format has both a
formal presentation for each case
study and a series of workshop
sessions where participants can
discuss the case in detail with the
presenters. In addition there is a
formal case study write-up.
Cases from six countries, including
New Zealand, will be showcased.
2008 International Leading Practices Symposium
Six showcased
The cases to be presented are as
follows.
South Korea: Korea E-Government, Contributing to Enhanced Community Wellbeing
The presentation will focus on the
efforts made by the South Korean
government, at both national and
local government levels, to provide
better services to the public through
e-government. At the national
government level, South Korea
has implemented the “Information
Network Village (INVIL)” project, Page 1 of 3
under which more than 300
local villages are supported with
internet access, PCs, village IT
centres and IT training
to help create village
communities that can benefit
from IT. The Seoul Metropolitan City
provides integrated services through
a single channel, which facilitates
online public participation.
United Kingdom: Kaizen, A Model for Continuous Improvement
Aberdeenshire Council has adopted
Kaizen as a model for continuous
improvement and has built in-house
capacity to sustain an ongoing
programme of events. In three years
the council moved from a position
of being unsure about how to use
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such a technique to seeing staff fully
believing “this is how breakthrough
improvements get done around
here”.
This has not been an easy path, but
has produced fantastic results for
the management, employees, and
most importantly, the customers of
the council.
Australia: Environmental Leadership
The City of Melbourne has long
shown leadership in environmental
sustainability. It was an early
adopter of reduction targets for
emissions and water use, and has
well-established links with global
organisations that are making real
strides in addressing climate change.
However, it really cemented its
environmental credentials with the
creation of CH2 (Council House
2). The visionary CH2 has the
potential to change forever the way
developers approach ecologically
sustainable design.
Already the example set by CH2
is having flow-on effects beyond
the building itself, to policy and
regulatory innovation.
Canada: Intelligent Waterloo
The City of Waterloo was named the
2007 Intelligent Community of the
Year. The case will share insights
on participating in the Intelligent
Community process, with a focus on
the short and long-term benefits that
Waterloo has seen as a result.
Symposium participants will be
able to learn more about Intelligent
Waterloo, to explore the networks
that exist within their own
communities and to learn more about
the role that municipal government
can play in building community
partnerships that will allow their city
to compete and to thrive in a global,
broadband-based economy.
United States: Preparing the Next Generation
A whole generation of baby boomers
is retiring from local government,
and there are fewer Gen X and Gen
Y professionals ready and willing
to replace them. The Symposium
workshop will explore the integrated
Coaching Program designed to:
• accelerate the development of
aspiring managers already in the
local government pipeline; and
• attract young people into the local
government pipeline.
The California affiliate of the ICMA
Page 2 of 3
2008 International Leading Practices Symposium
Six showcased
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provides an integrated Coaching
Program that targets emerging
leaders in local governments
throughout California. The various
Coaching Program events (webinars
and call-ins) have attracted as many
as 200 participants.
The more intensive workshops
attract between 15 and 25
participants. Several of the Coaching
Program participants have been
appointed city managers and
department heads.
Results like these start to define the
role and success of programmes like
this.
New Zealand: SmartGrowth, A Management Strategy for the Sustainable Future of the Western Bay and Tauranga Sub-Region
During the 1990s in the Western
Bay and Tauranga sub-region,
population increase, coastal ribbon
development, sprawling ad hoc rural
subdivision and rocketing urban
expansion had crept up on a region
ill-prepared for the pressures that
uncontrolled growth brings.
The growth explosion forced
unprecedented collaboration
between the three local authorities
– Tauranga City Council, Western
Bay of Plenty District Council and
Environment Bay of Plenty Regional
Council. The collaborative effort,
which began in 2001, was launched
as SmartGrowth in 2004 and is now
New Zealand’s most successful sub-
regional growth management plan.
SmartGrowth’s success depends on
a voluntary, cooperative approach
to sustainable development built
on understanding, agreement Page 3 of 3
2008 International Leading Practices Symposium
Six showcased and commitment, in preference
to a mandatory model built on
compliance and coercion.
The Symposium programme and
registration form are available online
at www.solgm.co.nz
For a direct link go to:
http://www.solgm.co.nz/Other+SOLG
M+Good+Practice+Material/Leading
+Practices+Symposium/
Agenda
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Strategic management and policy skills featured in the Deloitte Study on Recruitment and Retention as priority areas for skills development in the local government sector.
SOLGM Opus Business School has responded by working with the School of Government, Victoria University, to create 31/2-day intensive training programmes in strategic management and in policy development, which are tailored for the local government sector.
Both courses focus on imparting skills and knowledge relevant to the workplace, and include practitioners and academics as presenters and facilitators.
Strategic Management will be offered for the first time on 19-22 May and Policy Analysis and Advising will run for the third time on 20-23 October. The programmes
can be undertaken for professional development or alternatively, for academic credit (with assessment). Programmes will be at the Victoria University downtown Pipitea campus in Wellington.
The intensive 31/2-day format was selected to make the courses more accessible to local authorities throughout the country.
The strategic management programme will be coordinated Dr Lance Beath of the School of Government, Victoria University. Dr Beath has extensive experience as a practitioner, teaches several courses on the Masters of Strategic Studies at Victoria University, and has undertaken research on strategy and strategic decision-making in local government for the FRST Local Futures Project.
The strategic management
programme will have a strong practical element – involving workshops on strategic issue-framing and strategic tools and techniques relating to strategic management and decision-making.
A broad overview of the theory and practice of strategic management will be provided which includes relationships to strategic planning and thinking, the role of leadership in strategy development, managing for outcomes, and performance management.
The policy offering is coordinated by Professor Claudia Scott, Professor of Public Policy at Victoria University of Wellington and at the Australia and New Zealand School of Government. Dr Scott has had long-standing teaching and research interests in
Strategy and policy courses target skill shortages
Filling the gaps
Page 1 of 2
Agenda
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The electronic magazine from the New Zealand Society of Local Government Managers
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local government and is currently Project Leader of the Local Futures Project.
The course provides participants with hands-on practical experience in building skills in policy analysis and advisory work. The workshop format of the course will build skills in problem definition, clarification of goals and objectives, development and evaluation of options, assembling of information and evidence, and issues surrounding policy implementation and evaluation.
Participants will work in syndicates on a policy issue and develop an outcomes matrix of policy options for decision-makers, which is presented for discussion and critique.
Cooperation between SOLGM and the School of Government, Victoria
University, in this initiative reflects their common interests in building skills and capabilities in the local government sector.
n For further information contact: Con Flinkenberg, [email protected] (04) 978-1281
or
[email protected] (04) 463-5377
Claudia Scott
Cooperation between SOLGM and the School of Government, Victoria University, in this initiative reflects their common interests in building skills and capabilities in the local government sector.
Strategy and policy courses target skill shortages
Filling the gaps
Page 2 of 2
Agenda
SOLGMPO Box 5538,Lambton Quay,8th Floor, Civic Assurance House,114-118 Lambton Quay,Wellington,New Zealand
Tel: 04 978 1280Fax: 04 978 1285Email: [email protected]
The electronic magazine from the New Zealand Society of Local Government Managers
PulseApril 2008
Hotu Manawa National Office DiaryThe diary is a brief list of the “headlines” of what National Office has been up to since the previous edition of Pulse. So if you have ever found yourself wondering what those people in Wellington do with their time, here is the answer.
NOVEMBER
Friday 2
• New Risk Management and Legal Compliance module on Bylaws published
Monday 5 and Tuesday 6
• 2007 RMA Planning Technicians/Administrators Training - Christchurch
Friday 9
• “Dollars and Sense” the guide to financial management and the LTCCP published
Monday 12 and Tuesday 13
• 2007 RMA Planning Technicians/Administrators Training - Auckland
Wednesday 14
• National office hosts visiting Study tour from Korea
Thursday 15 and Friday 16
• 2009 and Beyond Seminar – Rotorua
Monday 19
• Revised Risk Management and Legal
Compliance module on Privacy Act published.
Monday 19 and Tuesday 20
• 2007 RMA Planning Technicians/Administrators Training - Wellington
Thursday 22 and Friday 23
• 2009 and Beyond Seminar, Auckland
Thursday 22
• President and Chief Executive meet new Minister Mahuta
Monday 26 and Tuesday 27
• 2009 and Beyond Seminar – Christchurch
Tuesday 27
• Risk Management and Legal Compliance Working Party meets
Thursday 29 and Friday 30
• 2009 and Beyond Seminar – Palmerston North
DECEMBER
Monday 3 and Tuesday 4
• 2009 and Beyond Seminars (Dunedin)
Wednesday 12
• 2007 Electoral Officers Forum - Election Debrief
Thursday 13 and Friday 14
• SOLGM Executive Committee meeting
FEBRUARY
Friday 8
• Financial Management Working Party
meeting
Friday 22
• Strategic Planning Working Party
meeting
Tuesday 26
• Risk Management and Legal
Compliance Working Party publishes
revised modules on Building Consents
and Property Sales Acquisitions and
Leases
Thursday 28 and Friday 29
• Local Government HR Conference
MARCH
Friday 7
• Risk Management and Legal
Compliance Working Party meeting
Friday 14
• SOLGM Executive meeting
Wednesday 26 March 2008
• 2009 and Beyond for the Decision-
Makers - Auckland
Thursday 27 and Friday 28
• Community Consultation Skills
Training
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The Local Government Industry Training Organisation’s national certificates are an essential tool for ensuring local government employees are effective, efficient and complying to industry standards. The purpose of LGITO is to facilitate training for local government staff to enable them to achieve qualifications specific to the local government industry.
Our vision is to be a key contributor to the local government sector performance by improving its people. We will do this by:
• embedding a learning and achievement culture in local government;
• providing learning pathways for local government employees; and
• developing and maintaining local government specific unit standards and qualifications.
Improving the people in local government
The LGITO
LGITO has years of experience in
the design and assisted delivery of
industry-based local government
training. We are at the forefront
of qualifications development and
support of integrated learning in
on-job, non-classroom learning
environments.
Our approach to workplace learning
is learner-focused and industry-
based, providing the flexibility to
ensure that work-study balance is
maintained throughout learning.
Learners benefit from qualifications
that are portable and continuously
enhanced to reflect present-day
needs, thereby ensuring relevance.
LGITO is currently renewing its brand
and presence to increase awareness
of its services. A concerted effort
to become more marketing-oriented
has driven change in the way we
communicate; to be even more
customer-focused and user-friendly.
This is reflected in the redesign of
the LGITO web site www.lgito.org.nz
to improve access to information and
encourage interaction through our
SOLGMPO Box 5538,Lambton Quay,8th Floor, Civic Assurance House,114-118 Lambton Quay,Wellington,New Zealand
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Improving the people in local government
The LGITOmost important source of contact
with local government staff.
In addition, all marketing collateral is
being reviewed to present the brand
message and highlight benefits.
We believe that our “qualifications
matter” as they enhance local
government productivity by
improving the skill base, encouraging
learner engagement and staff
retention.
LGITO has a partnership approach
in working with a wide range of
organisations on programme
development. This means
consultation with expert groups,
current local government employees
and managers.
Our partners include SOLGM, other
ITOs, education providers, education
consultants and local government
employees. Working collaboratively
with stakeholders, employers and
learners helps to support workplace
learning.
The LGITO is currently involved
in work on qualifications for local
authority building officials. A
consultant working under a steering
group consisting of SOLGM, Local
Government New Zealand and
Building Officials Institute (BOINZ)
representatives has completed
several new unit standards to form
the basis of a National Diploma for
Building Control Surveyors related
to inspection of small buildings.
The LGITO has now successfully
registered those unit standards
on the NZ Qualifications Authority
Framework.
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Improving the people in local government
The LGITOThe National Diploma itself will also
be formally registered on the NZQA
Framework following clarification
of transition arrangements that will
identify how previous and current
building officials training courses
can cross-credit towards the new
diploma.
The LGITO is currently arranging
the start of a second project related
to building officials to develop a
National Diploma around inspection
of medium to large buildings. Some
of the unit standards in the small
buildings qualification will also
appear in the medium to large
building qualification, thereby
creating a path to achieving both
qualifications. Both qualifications
will comprise elements of existing
training courses for people in the
building design and construction
industry as much as possible, so
that building inspection for local
authorities becomes one of the
career options for these people.
SOLGM, Local Government
New Zealand and BOINZ will
again be involved in a steering
group to oversee development
of this qualification, along with
representatives from the Local
Authority Building Managers
Group, the Department of Building
and Housing, the Institute of
Building Surveyors and a provider
representative. The steering group
will be chaired by Craig Stevenson, a
member of the LGITO board.
For more information about how
LGITO qualifications can add value,
please visit www.lgito.org.nz or
contact General Manager Kevin
Wafer on (04) 978-1240.
The LGITO is currently arranging the start of a second project related to building officials to develop a National Diploma around inspection of medium to large buildings. Some of the unit standards in the small buildings qualification will also appear in the medium to large building qualification, thereby creating a path to achieving both qualifications.
SOLGMPO Box 5538,Lambton Quay,8th Floor, Civic Assurance House,114-118 Lambton Quay,Wellington,New Zealand
Tel: 04 978 1280Fax: 04 978 1285Email: [email protected]
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Page 1 of 4
A competitive insurance market
Change afoot?By Ray AndrewManaging DirectorJardine Lloyd Thompson
The insurance market continues to
be highly competitive locally and
globally but are things about to
change?
Australasian market underwriters
remain aggressive in their desire
to grow market share in all major
commercial classes. There is a
view, however, that premium rate
reductions in 2008 will be modest
compared to recent years.
One leading property underwriter
with 35 years experience in this
market told Jardine Lloyd Thompson
(JLT) that rates were now at 1997
levels, the lowest he’d experienced in
his working career.
It is not that the market has been
without losses over the past 12
months – the storms of mid-2007
in the Far North, Auckland and
Coromandel, and the Gisborne
earthquake in December has resulted
in insured losses already in excess
of $35 million. The Hunter Valley
floods, the summer storms in Sydney
together with other major weather
events in Northern New South
Wales and South East Queensland,
plus severe flooding in Central
Queensland, have resulted in claims
exceeding $2 billion.
The results of major listed insurers
IAG and Suncorp have been affected
by these losses. John Mulcahy,
the CEO of Suncorp (the parent
company of Vero New Zealand), has
SOLGMPO Box 5538,Lambton Quay,8th Floor, Civic Assurance House,114-118 Lambton Quay,Wellington,New Zealand
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Hotu Manawa A competitive insurance market
Change afoot?foreshadowed premium increases for
domestic classes of insurance while
other industry leaders are beginning
to talk about increasing commercial
rates.
Internationally the economic
environment is dishing up some
potential challenges for the
insurance market. The subprime
mortgage crisis will undoubtedly
bring significant claims to the
insurance market. Already some
underwriters have reported losses
due to their own exposure to the
credit market. XL Capital reported
a US$1.5 billion after-tax change in
their Q4 2007 results, and Swiss
Re, the world’s largest reinsurer, has
reported a CHF1.2 billion pre-tax
loss.
The subprime mortgage crisis will
bring claims against banks and
financial institutions, the real estate
industry, property valuers, financial
advisors and the like with the
Professional Liability market bearing
the brunt of these claims.
The equity and capital markets are
also experiencing turbulence which
will impact the insurance market.
In the past two years, underwriters’
loss ratios have increased due to
declining premium rates. Their
investment returns have been
increasing, which has enabled
them to post record profits despite
a softening insurance market.
Investment returns are likely to be
much lower in 2008, with not only
the stock market steadying, but also
the Federal Reserve reducing official
interest rates in the USA.
Investment guru Warren Buffet
warned recently at the Berkshire
Hathaway results announcement
that the times of record profits for
insurers and reinsurers had gone.
During the past decade the capital
Internationally the economic environment is dishing up some potential challenges for the insurance market. The subprime mortgage crisis will undoubtedly bring significant claims to the insurance market. Already some underwriters have reported losses due to their own exposure to the credit market.
Page 2 of 4
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markets have been quick to respond
to the insurance market’s need for
replacement capital after major
losses. As recently as 2005, the
capital markets provided more than
US$50 billion of replacement and
strategic new venture capital in
response to the massive insurance
losses from hurricanes Katrina,
Wilma and Rita.
There is a squeeze on capital
globally and some doubt about
whether the capital markets can
respond to the market’s need
for replacement capital from
increasing loss ratios or from a
major catastrophe. If rates continue
to decline, underwriters’ capital
bases will decline from attritional
losses; reduced capital will affect
their ability to write new business.
Demand might begin to exceed
supply – at this point we will see a
rise in insurance rates.
There is some pressure in the
Directors & Officers Liability market
with several large class action
suits under way. These claims are
forcing underwriters to reassess
their underwriting guidelines. We
are seeing some underwriters
being more cautious in accepting
high-profile clients. Capacity will
tighten and there might be a rise
in premiums in the second half of
2008.
We continue to see aggressive
strategies from underwriters of SME
and Middle Market Property and
Casualty lines. With all the talk in the
market about an upward movement
in late 2008 or early 2009,
underwriters are trying to position
themselves to take advantage of
improved market conditions. Those
There is a squeeze on capital globally and some doubt about whether the capital markets can respond to the market’s need for replacement capital from increasing loss ratios or from a major catastrophe. If rates continue to decline, underwriters’ capital bases will decline from attritional losses; reduced capital will affect their ability to write new business.
A competitive insurance market
Change afoot?
Page 3 of 4
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with the market share will be better
rewarded.
In the major corporate market there
is less competition as many of the
accounts have been tested in the
market during the past five years.
The desire by underwriters to lock in
clients with long-term agreements is
increasing and JLT is recommending
to several clients they now consider
this hedging mechanism.
The major corporate market is
heavily impacted by Merger &
Acquisition activity. Underwriters
who are “on the losing end” of a
transaction are keen to replace
lost income, but the opportunities
to do this with new client wins are
diminishing.
The London market continues to
be active in the Asia Pacific region.
Lloyds Syndicates has opened
its own offices in Australia and
Singapore, and is adapting to the
local market conditions. Lloyds also
continues to support numerous
underwriting agencies in Australasia,
writing Property and Casualty
business.
The largest and/or more complex
risks still rely on participation from
London and European insurers and
reinsurers. The underwriters in those
markets are pushing for greater
market share in the top end market,
which is comforting to clients in this
sector.
While JLT is not anticipating the
same level of reductions in 2008
as we have seen in recent years, we
do envisage underwriters will seek
to offer broader policy coverage to
differentiate from their competitors.
With the predicted change in market
conditions within the next 12 months,
JLT believes its local authority
clients should be reviewing their risk
exposures in detail and will assist
them with this. 2008 is the ideal
time to ensure the policy coverage
totally reflects your needs.
A competitive insurance market
Change afoot?The largest and/or more complex risks still rely on participation from London and European insurers and reinsurers. The underwriters in those markets are pushing for greater market share in the top end market, which is comforting to clients in this sector.
Page 4 of 4
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Queenstown Lakes District Council has selected Infor Public Sector’s Hansen 8 Asset Management System to improve processes and manage the maintenance for its water and parks assets.
These assets include the council’s water, sewer and storm systems, and all parks facilities, open spaces, national parks and nature reserves. The QLDC project implements a new computer-based maintenance management system, along with supporting business processes to improve the operational efficiency of five key areas:
• on-demand work order management;
• asset tracking;
• asset inspections;
• performance assessments; and
• performance reporting.
Infor Public Sector’s Hansen 8
Queenstown Lakes invests in new technology
New systemproduct is fully integrated to meet the operational needs of local government. It comes from more than 20 years of experience working with more than 500 organisations that manage local government operations.
Hansen 8 is browser-based and built on Microsoft’s .Net technology. This supports security, globalisation, personalisation, and a highly scalable yet robust business and workflow framework. It delivers standardised HTML and XML to client PCs using Microsoft ASP .Net and AJAX-like technologies. There is no need to install, configure or maintain client side software, deploying endless updates and software versioning to PCs.
Hansen 8 will run from any supported internet client using a standard Internet Explorer 6 or higher web browser.
Implementation began in February and will run in three phases, which are scheduled to be substantially completed this year. In the initial phase, core business processes and related service levels will be established and mapped, the architecture for the asset register will be implemented, data needs will be assessed, and the Hansen 8 Asset Management System software installed.
The second phase will migrate and capture data to populate the asset register established during Phase 1. Advanced system configuration, administrator training
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and development of the interface to council systems will occur concurrently.
In the final phase, there will be training for end users, and the new maintenance and management procedures will go live.
“We are looking forward to using a single data source for all of our pipe and park assets that will also interface well with our existing ESRI GIS system,” says QLDC Chief Information Officer Kirsty Martin. “The Hansen 8 Asset Management System will allow the QLDC to better manage our assets, from planning and monitoring to evaluating and reporting.”
The project is being jointly implemented by Infor Public Sector and MWH, who will help the council with needs assessments, system analysis and developing functional specifications.
Page 2 of 2
Queenstown Lakes invests in new technology
New system
Infor Public Sector’s Hansen 8 will help to manage Queenstown Lakes District assets, such as at Rose Douglas Park, Arrowtown.
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Hotu Manawa New Zealand Post Management Excellence Awards
New lookAfter more than a decade of the
New Zealand Post Management
Excellence Awards running in
essentially the same format,
SOLGM and New Zealand Post have
concluded that it is time to give the
awards a major overhaul.
The current format of the awards
has changed very little since 1999.
On reviewing the awards, it was
apparent that a great deal about
local government and its operating
environment had changed over that
period. It was easy to see that it was
time for an update of the awards to
reflect these changes.
The approach has been to look at
the relevance of the current set of
categories. With the exception of the
Community Relationships category,
these can be seen as reflecting
traditional divisions in the structure
of the local authority organisation,
rather the more outcome-focused
framework of the LGA 2002.
The opportunity was seen to adopt
a new set of categories that had
a broader, more thematic focus,
while also being relevant in terms of
focusing on issues and challenges
important to the sector. This
would also have the advantage
of broadening the range of local
authority projects that fell within
an award category, and of pitching
the categories at a level more
likely to relate to areas of overall
organisational focus.
Related to this change in the
type of category, there was an
opportunity for the award categories
to evolve more fluidly from year
to year to highlight different areas
of priority and challenge to the
local government sector. It was
decided that not only would the
categories for 2008 be released
at this stage, but also the change
that would be made for 2009. This
will provide sufficient lead time for
local authorities to consider possible
projects within the scope of the
incoming category.
Based on this approach it has been
agreed that the categories for 2008
will be as follows.
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Council-Community Relationships
This category is to highlight
work by local authorities that
demonstrates excellence, innovation
or sector leadership in community
engagement in the planning or
execution of the project. This
might relate to almost any area of
local authority activity, provided it
includes a key focus on community
engagement. This is essentially the
same as the previous Community
Relationships category.
Building Organisational Capability
This category focuses on
organisational capability building.
This might include human
resources, technology, process/
systems development, or any other
projects which focus on building
organisational capability and which
demonstrate excellence, innovation
or sector leadership in that area.
Taking a Sustainable Development Approach
A sustainable development (SD)
approach involves thinking broadly
and in an integrated manner about
the implications of options, decision
and actions, and taking a long-term
view. This is relevant across the full
range of local authority activities.
There is no limit of the subject
matter of projects that could be
entered in this category. However,
entries will need to make clear how
they have applied an SD approach,
and how this has made a difference
in terms of both the actions taken
and the results that flowed from
them.
Joined Up Local Government
This category is seen as
encompassing entries across a wide
New Zealand Post Management Excellence Awards
New lookA sustainable development (SD) approach involves thinking broadly and in an integrated manner about the implications of options, decision and actions, and taking a long-term view. This is relevant across the full range of local authority activities.
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range of areas of local authority
activity. The defining characteristic
is that a key feature of what
is being done involves joining
together with one or more other
organisations to pursue a common
priority. This could include shared
services projects with other local
authorities, or partnerships with
government agencies or community
organisations.
For 2009, the Joined Up
Government category will be
replaced by one on More Effective
Local Regulation.
This category will focus on projects
that demonstrate sector leadership
and excellence in one or more
aspects of the local authority’s
regulatory activities. Entries might
relate to any aspect of regulatory
activity, from consent processing
to compliance activities, or systems
design to strategic alignment.
While decisions have not yet been
made on categories for 2010, there is
likely to be a category on Improving
Customer Service.
Along with the change of categories,
it has also been decided that
projects that have previously been
entered under the old awards
format will be eligible for re-entry
where the project has continued
to evolve or where there has been
further evaluation that can better
substantiate successful results. This
reflects a longstanding concern that
projects entered in the awards have
often been too recent for successful
results to be substantiated.
Thanks to those Chief Executives and
other stakeholders with whom we
consulted during the review of the
awards and who provided valuable
feedback and suggestions.
Look out for the call for entries by
the end of April.
New Zealand Post Management Excellence Awards
New lookIt has also been decided that projects that have previously been entered under the old awards format will be eligible for re-entry where the project has continued to evolve or where there are results from further evaluation that can better substantiate successful results.
Page 3 of 3
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2007 was the 11th year of the New Zealand Post Management Excellence Awards. This makes the awards clearly the most long-running, and arguably one of the most successful streams of SOLGM’s good practice work programme.
With the decision to substantially redesign the awards for 2008 and onwards, it seems timely to look back over their history.
Since the inception of the awards the announcement of the winners has been a feature of the SOLGM Conference. The accumulated collection of awards entries represents a growing library of good practice from across local authorities large and small. All entries since 2004 – 110 in total – are available as downloads from www.solgm.co.nz. Executive summaries describing all projects back as far as 1999 are also
New Zealand Post Management Excellence Awards
Eleven yearsavailable.
SOLGM is grateful for the ongoing support of New Zealand Post as sponsor. New Zealand Post’s association with SOLGM and the Management Excellence Awards began in 1997. The SOE’s objective then, as it is now, was to demonstrate to local authorities that the pursuit of excellence, exemplified by the Management Excellence Awards, aligns with the ideals and objectives of New Zealand Post and that in working with us councils could rely upon the highest possible standards of service.
“New Zealand Post is proud to have been associated with this programme through which creative and innovative solutions to real local
government problems have been recognised and shared across the sector, contributing significantly to ‘good practice’ in local government management,” says Don Day, Manager Local Government Relations for New Zealand Post.
Over the period as a whole, 285 projects have been entered for the awards. The largest single year was 2005 with 42 entries, the smallest was 1999 with 11. About two-thirds of all local authorities have entered the awards at some time over that period. There has been a solid core of about 10 local authorities that have been regular entrants.
Particularly in more recent years, a significant number of entries have related to joint projects among groups of councils. It has been
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common for some councils to enter more than one project in a year, and occasionally a single project has even been entered into more than one award category. Some councils have clearly built the awards into their programme of organisational development and service improvement initiatives.
After an initial period of evolution, the format of the awards has been largely stable. For the first two years there were no specified categories for the awards and finalists were selected and announced in advance of the SOLGM Conference.
The division of the awards into four categories dates from 1999, when the categories Technology Advance, Customer Relationships, Management of People, and Process Management were introduced. In 2000 the Customer Relationships category was re-designated as
Community Relationships. The four categories have been essentially the same ever since.
A special commendation was introduced in 2005 for local authorities which were first-time entrants in the awards. In 2007 this was replaced by a special commendation for small councils (with a population of 20,000 or less).
Similarly, the arrangements for the judging of the awards have, after an initial settling-down period, been very stable. This has involved a panel of general judges supported by a specialist judge for each category. These judges have been drawn from
Horizons Regional Council and Palmerston North City won the Supreme Award for their “After Hours Contact Centre” in 2005. This shared services initiative has continued to grow and thrive.
New Zealand Post Management Excellence Awards
Eleven years
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local authorities, from New Zealand Post as sponsor, Local Government New Zealand, government departments, the Office of the Auditor-General and Audit New Zealand, and other organisations with an interest in public sector management.
SOLGM and New Zealand Post would like to thank all of the individuals who have given their time to play a part in the judging of the awards over the years. Deserving of special mention is David Chapman of the New Zealand Institute of Management who has been a judge
of the awards since from their inception.
The first winner of the awards in 1997 was New Plymouth District Council for its project on Creating a Customer Service Centre. The other entrants in the first year were Christchurch City (four entries), Manukau City (two entries), Franklin District, Hamilton City, Hutt City, Masterton District, Matamata Piako District, Tauranga District (not yet City), Upper Hutt City, Wanganui District, and Wellington City and Wellington Regional Council (not yet Greater).
The tendencies for the greatest number of entries to come from the metro local authorities and for some of the larger councils to make multiple entries hence date from the very beginning of the awards.
The second year of the awards saw
New Zealand Post Management Excellence Awards
Eleven years
Long-serving judge David Chapman of the New Zealand Institute of Management.
Auckland Regional Council’s website for children was awarded a commendation in the Community Relationship category in 2004.
the number of entries drop away to 11. Auckland City Council won for its Property Information Systems project. Two commendations were awarded, to Auckland Regional
Page 3 of 6
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Council for its Ridewell Business Unit project and Hurunui District for Going Outside the Square – an
approach to communicating with ratepayers in the annual plan. Environment Waikato, Kapiti Coast
District, Waikato District, Western Bay District and Waitakere City also all participated for the first time.
1999 was a breakthrough year for the awards with the number of entries rising sharply to 32. This was the first year where the now familiar format with the four categories and overall Supreme Winner was used. Environment Waikato
won the Process Management and Supreme awards for its project One in a Hundred Year Flood. Since that
time entry numbers have ranged from a low of 17 in 2004 to a high of 42 in 2005. 2002 marked the point at which a majority of local authorities had entered at least once.
Throughout the 11-year period, participation in the awards has been strongest among the metropolitan local authorities. This dated from the very start of the awards in 1997 when 12 of the 17 entries were from metropolitan local authorities. Only one of the metropolitan local authorities has never entered. Five – Waitakere, Dunedin. Auckland, Wellington and Manukau – have averaged better than an entry a year.
Provincial local authorities were initially slow to pick up on the awards, but participation across the
New Zealand Post Management Excellence Awards
Eleven years
Peter Hebden of New Plymouth District presents “Real Service Real Time” at the 2006 Leading Practices Symposium. “Real Service Real Time” won the Technology category of the awards in 2004.
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group grew steadily over time. New Plymouth and South Taranaki Districts have been the strongest supporters of the awards among this group.
Among regional councils, the ARC and Environment Waikato have been regular entrants, but nearly half of the regions (including unitaries) have never entered. The level of entries from rural councils has always been lower than for the other groups.
Surveying the subject matter of the entries over the years reveals both continuity and evolution. Entries relating to planning processes, both at council and community level, have always been a feature. The advent of the LTCCP since 2002 has seen a change in emphasis in these.
Infrastructure projects have been a regular feature throughout, particularly in smaller and middle-sized districts. The balance of technology projects has gradually shifted from engineering towards IT. Process redesign projects around consenting functions have frequently been entered. Other areas of focus, such as human resources projects and customer service enhancements appear to have waxed and waned over the year.
Shared services projects involving more than local authority have become more prominent. The strong participation of local authority libraries has been a consistent feature, particularly in the technology category.
Since the inception of the four
New Zealand Post Management Excellence Awards
Eleven years
Waitakere Central – 2007 Supreme Award winner. Page 5 of 6
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categories in 2000, the Community Relationships category has consistently drawn the largest numbers of entries. It was the most heavily subscribed category in every year except 2007. This seems to reflect the greater breadth of the type of projects capable of falling within it.
The Management of People category has been the least entered overall, but unexpectedly was the largest category in 2005. One of the aims of the rejig of the awards (see separate article page 47) is to have a set of categories capable of accommodating projects across a broader range of local authority activity.
The call for applications for the new-look awards is expected to be out by the end of April.
New Zealand Post Management Excellence Awards
Eleven yearsTHE WINNERS1997 – New Plymouth District, Creating a Customer Service Centre
1998 – Auckland City Council, Property Information Systems
1999 – Environment Waikato, One in a Hundred Year Flood
2000 – Wellington City Council, Wellington City Libraries “E-City”
2001 – Auckland Chief Executives’ Forum, Shared Services – Councils of the Auckland Region
2002 – New Plymouth District, Taranaki BioBoostTM 6-3-0
2003 - Environment Waikato, Clean Streams Waikato – and Manukau City Council, New Settlers Policy and Action Plan (joint winners)
2004 – Kapiti Coast District Council, Developing the Kapiti Coast: Choosing Future Community Outcomes and Community Plan
2005 – Palmerston North City Council / Horizons mw, Local Government After Hours Contact Centre
2006 – Dunedin City Council, The Activity Management Plans
2007 – Waitakere City Council, Waitakere Central
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Page 1 of 4
Councils ill-prepared to evaluate plan effectiveness
RMA plansMeasuring the Effectiveness of RMA Plans: A New Plan Outcome Evaluation (POE) Methodology
Authors: Lucie Laurian, Jan Crawford and Neil Ericksen1
The Resource Management Act
mandates that councils monitor
“the efficiency and effectiveness of
policies, rules and other methods in
[their] policy statement or [their]
plan” by 2008.
Yet, by and large councils have
not begun to develop evaluation
programmes for their plans and
are ill–prepared to conduct any
evaluation of plan effectiveness,
let alone efficiency. This is largely
because it is very unclear whether
and how this can be done.
Councils cannot be blamed:
nowhere in the world are the
outcomes of local and regional
plans systematically evaluated
(see Figure 1 over page). While the
social, education, and health policy
fields of analysis have well accepted
programme evaluation methods,
the environmental and planning
fields have no such ready resource.
Planners do not experiment with
control groups, and thus cannot
describe the impact of a planning
intervention “all else being equal’
because all else is never equal with
regard to time and place-specific
RMA plans.
So how can district and regional
planners identify whether or not
plans are achieving their intended
outcomes? Since 1995, the Planning
Under a Co-operative Mandates
(PUCM) research team at the
International Global Change Institute
(The University of Waikato) has
progressively studied the quality
of district and regional plans, their
implementation and their outcomes.
At each phase of this research,
they had to develop the evaluation
methods, because there were no
1 Dr Lucie Laurian is Assistant Professor, Urban and Regional Planning Program, University of Iowa and an IGCI Associate assisting with the research programme on Planning Under Cooperative Mandates (PUCM) since 2000; Jan Crawford is Director of Planning Consultants Ltd (Auckland) and PUCM Objective leader for environmental outcomes (2003-2007) and, since 2007, the PUCM Practice Development Programme (2003-2009); Professor Neil Ericksen is PUCM Programme Leader (1995-2008) and former Director of the International Global Change Institute (IGCI) at The University of Waikato, where PUCM is based. Others on the PUCM Phase 3 team contributing to the reported research were: Dr Peter Kouwenhoven, IGCI researcher on PUCM and creator of the RAP method; Dr Greg Mason, who applied the RAP method in several councils; and Maxine Day, formerly of Lawrence Cross Chapman & Co Ltd (Thames), who helped develop and apply methods in Papakura District Council.
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RMA plansready-made methods available
internationally.
Applying the plan quality method
developed in Phase 1 to more than
50 regional and district plans, the
PUCM team found that the quality
of plans (their internal consistency,
clarity, factual bases, etc) varied
substantially across councils and for
a variety of reasons (Ericksen, et al.,
2001; 2003).
Applying the plan implementation
quality method developed in Phase
2 to six district plans chosen from
Phase 1 councils for the range of
plan quality and capacity to plan,
they found that district plans were
not consistently or well implemented
through the resource consent
process.
Some plans referred to innovative
policies and methods for solving
problems, but then councils relied
on traditional, and perhaps less
effective, methods, in practice (Day,
et al., 2003).
This raises these questions: Do plans
achieve their outcomes? When do
they achieve the best outcomes? Is
consistent implementation sufficient
to produce the desired outcomes?
Are other factors, not related to the
Page 2 of 4
Figure 1. This diagram highlights the typical evaluation gap when implementing the rational-adaptive model of planning in Western countries. In New Zealand our research showed: 1) notified district plans were not of high quality and therefore incapable of achieving their intended outcomes; 2) implementation methods in resource consents often did not reflect the policy intentions of the plan; and 3) lack of monitoring hindered evaluation of the effectiveness of plans, which the RMA requires councils to do.
Goal and objective setting
Problem identification
Design, evaluation and
selection of alternatives 1. Plan writing
and adoption
Plan/policies revision
3. Plan monitoring
and evaluation
2. Plan implementation
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plan, more influential?
The RMA requires councils to report on plan effectiveness by August 2008, but this might not be possible because we cannot improve planning practice without knowing what works and what doesn’t, and whether plans yield their anticipated environmental outcomes.
In addition, without a full understanding of causal relationships, we cannot understand which outcomes are actually attributable to plan interventions.
The PUCM team thus devised in Phase 3 of the research a Plan Outcome Evaluation (POE) methodology to address these questions. It was designed to be robust and applicable in a wide variety of contexts, whether or not monitoring data is available (since it often is not).
The POE methodology is composed of three methods, applied in three sequential steps.
• Step 1 is a qualitative analysis of the internal logic of plans to assess whether we can logically expect them to deliver EERs (Expected Environmental Results).
• Step 2 is an analysis of data relating to indicators that track the outcomes that plans seek to improve.
• Step 3 is a qualitative analysis by local experts, through a modeling exercise, of the factors that influence the outcomes.
These experts (including council personnel) collectively develop a model of the factors and interventions (plan and non-plan) that directly and indirectly affect the outcome of interest for the particular district or region.
This exercise can be conducted through workshops using the Rapid Assessment Programme (RAP) software support system. (For more details see Crawford, et al., 2008 along with http://www.waikato.ac.nz/igci/publications/download/RAPhowitworks.pdf.)
Combined, these three methods in the POE methodology tell us:
• whether the plan is capable of achieving its desired outcomes;
• to what degree and why the desired outcomes are achieved;
• which factors influence these outcomes; and
• which planning interventions are the most likely to yield favourable outcomes in the future.
We successfully tested this POE
ICMA annual conference, Pittsburgh, October 2007
RMA plans
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methodology in three districts and for three issues: water quality, built heritage protection, and ecological and landscape protection. The applications and findings are described in detail in Crawford, et al. (2008), available at http://www.waikato.ac.nz/igci/pucm/Publications-Phase3.htm along with other PUCM publications.
The POE methodology is now available for application in all councils, and a practice guideline on the use of the POE methodology will soon be published.
For more information about building local government capacity to evaluate plans, their implementation, and their outcomes, keep informed about the training offered by Jan Crawford and Lee Beattie through the PUCM Practitioner Training Framework provided by the International Global Change
Institute (The University of Waikato), The University of Auckland, and associated parties.
This training programme will be described in more detail in a forthcoming Pulse magazine. As well, practice guidelines for making quality plans and evaluating plan implementation are available through the PUCM website as Chapman, et al.
(2003) and Day, et al. (2005).
References:
Chapman, S., Crawford J., and Ericksen, N., 2003: A Guide to Plan-Making in New Zealand: the Next Generation. PUCM Planning Practice Guide, No. 1. The International Global Change Institute, The University of Waikato, Hamilton.
Crawford, J., Day, M., Kouwenhoven, P., Laurian, L., Mason, G., and Ericksen, N., 2008: Achieving Anticipated Environmental Outcomes: How Effective is the District Plan? Report on a Methodological Pilot on the Evaluation of Plan Outcomes Regarding Water Quality in Papakura District available at http://www.waikato.ac.nz/igci/pucm/Publications-Phase3.htm.
Day, M., Backhurst, M., and Ericksen, N., et al., 2003: District Plan Implementation Under the RMA: Confessions of a Resource Consent. (Second PUCM Report to Government.) The International Global Change Institute, The University of Waikato, Hamilton.
Day, M., Backhurst, M., Laurian, L., Crawford, J. and Ericksen, N., 2005: Monitoring Plan Implementation in New Zealand. 2005). PUCM Planning Practice Guide, No. 2, The International Global Change Institute, The University of Waikato, Hamilton.
Ericksen, N., Berke, P., Crawford, J., and Dixon, J. 2003; Planning for Sustainability: New Zealand under the RMA (book). The International Global Change Institute, The University of Waikato, Hamilton.
Ericksen, N., Crawford, J., Berke, P. and J. Dixon, 2001: Resource Management, Plan Quality and Governance. (First PUCM Report to Government.) The International Global Change Institute, The University of Waikato, Hamilton.
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Hotu Manawa New addressing standards for bulk mail
1 July loomsBy Don DayLocal Government Relations ManagerNew Zealand Post
The date of 1 July 2008 is fast
approaching and for New Zealand
Post it’s the date when bulk mailers
must start using the new addressing
standards to continue to receive
bulk mail discounts.
A key change is the use of
the new postcodes. These
were first communicated
to all New Zealanders in
June 2006 when we ran
a major campaign to let
people know their
new postcode
and the
standardised
postal address
we held for them on our postal
address file.
Since then use of the correct
addresses and postcodes has
gradually increased, but we’ve always
known the biggest leap in adoption
would happen once bulk mailers
started using the new addresses.
We’ve provided two years for
businesses and
organisations to
get their address
databases in order
and feedback
suggests
about
80 per cent of bulk mail will be
carrying correct addresses from 1
July.
If your council still needs help
getting ready for the change you
should immediately contact your
New Zealand Post account manager.
It’s also worth thinking about how
you’ll communicate the changes to
your ratepayers and residents.
In some cases, New Zealand Post’s
postal address file contains a
different suburb or even city name to
that which your ratepayers may be
familiar with.
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Addresses in New Zealand are quite
inconsistent – our analysis of mail
over a period of 12 months showed
that people in the Auckland suburb
of Grafton, for example, used 10
variations of the suburb name on
their mail.
New Zealand Post has prepared
some template newsletter and
website articles to help explain why
addresses might differ. Again you
can talk to your account manager if
you would like to receive copies of
this material.
As you receive calls and feedback
though, there might be instances
where you find the postal address
file is at odds with how your
council represents an address.
It’s very important that you let
us know about those cases so we
can investigate and, if necessary,
correct them in our file. Please direct
enquiries of this nature to:
New addressing standards for bulk mail
1 July looms
Page 2 of 2
For further general information on addressing, see www.nzpost.co.nz/addressing or phone 0800 501 501.
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Hotu Manawa Performance excellence in local government
Briefing offerCouncils now have the opportunity
to use the internationally proven
Performance Excellence Study
Award (PESA) criteria to improve
performance and develop their
organisation.
The 2008 PESAs are supported by
Local Government New Zealand,
the Ministry for the Environment
and Business Excellence NZ. The
PESA criteria continue to evolve
in line with international best
practice, and to stay up-to-date
more than 60 councils have now
taken advantage of a subsidised
in-house briefing on performance
excellence principles and how to
use them.
With the launch of the 2008
PESA it is timely and highly cost-
effective to take advantage of
the 31/2-hour subsidised in-house
briefing. The cost to a council for
an in-house briefing is $850 +gst.
To secure an in-house briefing
for your council, use the contact
details below.
Other key features of the PESA
which continue to attract positive
feedback from councils are:
• The detailed written feedback
report which all award applicants
receive from the Baldrige-trained
external PESA assessment
panel. The report is an invaluable
business improvement tool and is
entirely confidential.
• Understanding how to implement
a proven and comprehensive
model for improved performance
across all aspects of a council’s
operations, including meeting
regulatory and planning
obligations.
• Access to organisational
development and performance
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excellence expertise on a one-off
or short to long-term contract
basis.
• Sharing knowledge and ideas on best practice with other councils which are using the PESA criteria.
• The opportunity to participate in the annual PESA study visit programme to the USA. So far, about 35 council managers have participated in this study visit programme and some places have already been booked for the 2008 study visit.
The 2008 application document for
the Performance Excellence Study
Awards is at
www.businessexcellence.co.nz –
click on “Awards”.
n For further information on the council programme or to secure a subsidised in-house PESA briefing, contact:
Errol Slyfield, Business Excellence NZ, ph (04) 473-2400 or 0274 510 400, email [email protected]
Performance excellence in local government
Briefing offer
Page 2 of 2
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Hotu Manawa ICMA annual conference, Pittsburgh, October 2007
Brain foodBy Jim CrookHorowhenua District Council
Even before the ICMA Conference
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, had
officially begun I’d had a huge steak,
drunk both good American beer
and Australian wine, met varied and
interesting people and was honoured
with genuine hospitality. A good
start, I thought.
Ensemble Ptijatelji’s colourful
dancing was an interesting
beginning. It was followed by the
formal “presentation of the colours”,
the singing of the American
national anthem and prayers then
a stimulating man, Bill Strickland,
talking about the “art of leadership”
and patterns of imagination. It was
different, inspiring, interesting and
his efforts were making a significant
impact on people’s lives not only in
the USA but now further afield.
I enjoyed the
session in making
the community
active participants
rather than
passive
bystanders to
gain practical
solutions and
priorities within
an ability-to-pay
framework. It was
a practical, mature
approach that was
also evident in
the performance
management presentation and
benchmarking sessions. Find and
stick to one business tool was the
message if you don’t want to alienate
the staff and give the impression of
panic. People like consistency.
I had expected leadership to be a
major theme at the conference and
indeed it came up a few times, none
more intriguing than how important
it is to develop a positive community
“brand”. Critical for prosperity, every
A trip out to Fallingwater, Pennsylvania, after the ICMA conference. Pictured with Jim Crook (far right) are, from left, Michael (Australia), Daniel (England) and Trudy (USA).
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ICMA annual conference, Pittsburgh, October 2007
Brain foodcommunity, whether we like it or
not, has a reputation and not all
reputations are positive.
An excellent case study was
provided to show how, through
strong political leadership, a rural
farming community which also had
a high-tech United States Air Force
base, developed a strong logo and a
strap line. It was accepted and used
by all businesses, the voluntary,
military and statutory sectors to
promote the community. It has
become a consistent and positive
brand.
I attended the libraries session to
hear about developments in the USA
and to listen to a speaker from the
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Libraries are referred to as the
“third place” – the first being
home and the second work – with
the potential to have a huge
positive impact on the community.
In the USA libraries are having
a transforming affect and I was
left wondering what impact new
developments such as these would
have in New Zealand.
Perhaps not surprisingly, America
and New Zealand share common
public service challenges. It was
the depth and quality of thinking,
practical and realistic solutions
based on the communities’ ability
to pay and the passion from
public service that was the most
impressive message that came
from Pittsburgh. It was a long
way to go, but the “brain food”
was refreshing, inspirational and
sufficiently different to justify the
effort.
It was not all work. After the
event finished, with three new
international colleagues I visited
the Frank Lloyd Wright house at
Fallingwater, a journey that took us
through the beautiful Pennsylvania
countryside.
After a great day we parted at the
airport and went back to our own
worlds.
Finally, thanks to MWH for their
sponsorship of my award. I really
appreciated the opportunity it
offered.
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PulseApril 2008
Hotu Manawa ICMA annual conference, Pittsburgh, October 2007
‘Green’ centreBy Paul BrakeFinance ManagerAshburton District Council
Thanks to the SOLGM Executive
Committee and MWH International
Conference Attendance award I was
able to attend the 93rd ICMA annual
conference in Pittsburgh. The
conference was in the David L
Lawrence conference centre,
which claims to be the
first US “certified green”
conference centre and the
world’s largest “green”
building.
My first impression on arrival
was the sheer number of
attendees – more
than 3000 – and
by the end of the
first day, how well
the conference had
been organised.
The track I chose to attend was the
performance management theme,
although I was also able to attend a
seminar on recruitment issues.
The keynote speakers – Bill
Strickland, Daniel Pink and
Dr Lowell Catlett – were
all very informative and
thought-provoking. Their
presentations have been
well covered by my fellow
attendees in the November
2007 issue of Pulse
magazine.
The first
performance
management
session covered the fundamentals
of performance measurement
and management. Perhaps the
key message to come out of this
presentation was that organisations
must have a “piercing clarity of
purpose”. Ultimately, elected
members need to agree this clarity
of purpose and, in the New Zealand
environment, champion it through
the LTCCP development process and
subsequent three-year cycle.
Organisations must be absolutely
clear on what they are trying
to achieve, and that this must
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Page 2 of 2
be accepted across the whole
organisation before performance
measurement and management
can be put in place. Following this,
organisations must rigorously
assemble evidence (performance
measures) and apply rigorous logic
thinking and questioning.
Without rigorous evidence there
is the risk that decision-making
will be based on incorrect data,
assumptions or opinions, all of
which can undermine effective
management.
A subsequent session covered the
question of why such a performance
management system is important.
Food for thought was offered in the
question: How much time/resources
are currently devoted to tracking
dollars in
• developing and preparing budgets;
• monitoring month to month financials;
• preparing annual financial reports; and
• audits?
Compared to tracking how well are
those dollars are spent?
One presenter defined a successful
performance management system as
one that can answer the following:
• Is the focus of our work consistent with our mission and desired outcomes?
• Are we delivering what really matters?
• Are we efficient and effective?
• Are we improving?
• Are some areas performing better than others, and can we learn from those areas?
• Do we really know what good performance is?
• Are we using key performance measures in our management decisions?
The workshop session demonstrated
to me that there is still confusion
between the outcomes, outputs
and inputs, especially the focus
on outputs rather than desired
outcomes. My observation is
that there is still much work to be
done here in developing outcome
measurement frameworks and
tools – an issue SOLGM is currently
addressing.
I would like to again thank SOLGM
and MWH for the opportunity
to attend this conference and
encourage others to take advantage
of this opportunity in the future.
ICMA annual conference, Pittsburgh, October 2007
‘Green’ centre
Training
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Opus continues to support the Business School
In December, the Chief Executive of
Opus International Consultants Ltd,
Kevin Thompson, and the President
of SOLGM, Steve Parry, signed a new
agreement for Opus to sponsor the
SOLGM Opus Business School for
a further three years. This is the
third cycle of sponsorship that Opus
has funded since 2001. The new
sponsorship agreement will provide
the school with funding until 2010.
“The close working relationships
between Opus and the many local
authorities in New Zealand has been
cemented over a number of years
through an ongoing amalgamation
of trust, service and achievement,”
says Dr Thompson. “We see our
contribution to the school as a
means of assisting a key client
group with their training needs
and ongoing development. We are
delighted to once again enter into
this agreement.”
SOLGM is equally delighted by this
continuing expression of confidence
in the value of the Business School’s
work to the local government sector.
Training Programme
The 2008 programme at the SOLGM
Opus Business School is now in
full swing. During March, SOLGM
conducted seminars on 2009 and
Beyond for Decision Makers. These
seminars were aimed at elected
officials. They provided background
and instruction on the Long Term
Council Community Plan (LTCCP)
and the role of elected officials in
forming and monitoring the LTCCP.
The two final seminars will be on 1
and 3 April.
In April we will continue the
2009 and Beyond for Decision
Makers seminars and we will be
running the first of our Customer
Relations courses and the Financial
Management Seminar.
In May we will be conducting two
of the courses aimed especially
at enhancing the professional
development of local government
staff: first the new Strategic
Management course; and then
the popular Introduction to Policy
course. Training for Middle Tier Local
Government Managers will also be in
May. The Communications Forum and
the Chief Executives’ Forum will be
in June and the Committee Advisors’
Seminar in July.
Page 1 of 6
From the SOLGM Opus Business School
Training
SOLGMPO Box 5538,Lambton Quay,8th Floor, Civic Assurance House,114-118 Lambton Quay,Wellington,New Zealand
Tel: 04 978 1280Fax: 04 978 1285Email: [email protected]
The electronic magazine from the New Zealand Society of Local Government Managers
PulseApril 2008
Hotu Manawa
From the SOLGM Opus Business SchoolDetails of these and all SOLGM Opus
Business School events are at:
http://www.solgm.org.nz/tools/
events/list.aspx?SECT=Business_
School_Events
Strategic Management course
Strategic Management for Local
Government is a specially designed
and customised course to develop
strategic management skills. It has
been prepared by Victoria University
of Wellington, in consultation with
SOLGM, specifically for the local
government sector. It covers:
• theories, models and issues
relating to strategic management,
as practised in the public sector;
• strategic planning and
management practices for central
and local government in New
Zealand (including emerging
thinking about on-going reform);
• tools and techniques for strategic
analysis;
• strategic planning processes,
particularly in relation to creation
of key planning documents (eg,
Long Term Council Community
Plans, Statements of Intent);
• exposure to current thought and
contemporary debates around
strategy.
The course draws on literature
discussing strategic management
in the public sector, on guidance
documents currently in use in
New Zealand and on candidates’
experiences and critical reflections
on current practice.
People taking this course can use
it to gain academic credit towards
a Victoria University of Wellington
qualification.
A special article on the Strategic
Management course by Professor
Claudia Scott is on page 35 of this
issue of Pulse.
2009 and Beyond for Decision Makers
Venue: Rydges Hotel Cnr Oxford Tce and Worcester St Christchurch
When: 1 April 2008
Venue: Travelodge (previously Novotel) Palmerston North
175-185 Cuba St
Palmerston North
When: 3 April 2008
Who should attend
The seminar is aimed at elected
members (new or returning). Senior
Page 2 of 6
Training
SOLGMPO Box 5538,Lambton Quay,8th Floor, Civic Assurance House,114-118 Lambton Quay,Wellington,New Zealand
Tel: 04 978 1280Fax: 04 978 1285Email: [email protected]
The electronic magazine from the New Zealand Society of Local Government Managers
PulseApril 2008
Hotu Manawa
From the SOLGM Opus Business Schoolmanagers with little background in
the LTCCP could also find this useful.
Managing Customer Relationships
Venue: Princes Gate Hotel
1057 Arawa St
Rotorua
When: 3 & 4 April 2008
Venue: Sudima Hotel
Christchurch Airport
Cnr Memorial Ave and Orchard Rd
Christchurch
When: 1 and 2 May 2008
Venue: Hawke’s Bay Club
Cnr Marine and
Browning St
Napier
When: 24 & 25 July 2008
Venue: Scenic Circle Southern Cross Hotel
Cnr Princes and High St
Dunedin
When: 6 & 7 November 2008
Who should attend
These workshops will be valuable to anyone in a local authority who has direct contact with the public or whose role involves delivery of information and services to internal customers.
Financial Management
Venue: Hyatt Regency Auckland
Cnr Waterloo Quadrant & Princes St
Auckland
When: 28-29 April 2008
Who should attend
Anyone in local government positions
with responsibility for financial
reporting, financial and funding
policy development, rating policy
and implementation, development of
the financial content of the LTCCP,
or treasury management. Or anyone
who works alongside these people.
Leadership for Middle Tier Managers
Venue: Brentwood Hotel
16 Kemp St
Kilbirnie
Wellington
When: 5-7 May 2008
Who should attend
This course is intended for middle
tier managers who are seriously
interested in developing their
leadership competencies and
building their interpersonal skills.
Page 3 of 6
Training
SOLGMPO Box 5538,Lambton Quay,8th Floor, Civic Assurance House,114-118 Lambton Quay,Wellington,New Zealand
Tel: 04 978 1280Fax: 04 978 1285Email: [email protected]
The electronic magazine from the New Zealand Society of Local Government Managers
PulseApril 2008
Hotu Manawa
From the SOLGM Opus Business SchoolStrategic Management in Local Government
Venue: Victoria University of Wellington
Wellington
When: 19-22 May 2008
Who should attend
See above outline of course and fuller article on page 35.
Introduction to Policy
Venue: Victoria University of Wellington
Wellington
When: 26-27 May 2008
Who should attend
Anyone in the local government
sector who is:
• interested in learning more about
the theory and practice of policy-
making, and its application to local
government;
• wishing to extend their policy
capabilities;
• keen to learn about policy
development in local government;
• considering further study to
develop policy analysis skills and
competencies
Local Government Communication Forum
Venue: Heritage Hotel
Queenstown
When: 12-13 June 2008
Who should attend
• All local authority communication managers and advisors.
• Communication consultants currently working with, or interested in, local government.
2008 Chief Executives’ Forum
Venue: James Cook Grand Chancellor Hotel
147 The Terrace
Wellington
When: 20 June 2008
Who should attend
The Forum gives local government
chief executives the opportunity to
meet at a national level to:
• network and discuss significant
issues of common interest;
• be brought up to date on important
developments by key stakeholders;
• receive help and advice in areas of
personal development.
Committee Advisors’ Seminar
Venue: Scenic Circle Southern Cross Hotel
Cnr Princes & High Streets
Dunedin
From the SOLGM Opus Business School
Page 4 of 6
Training
SOLGMPO Box 5538,Lambton Quay,8th Floor, Civic Assurance House,114-118 Lambton Quay,Wellington,New Zealand
Tel: 04 978 1280Fax: 04 978 1285Email: [email protected]
The electronic magazine from the New Zealand Society of Local Government Managers
PulseApril 2008
Hotu Manawa
From the SOLGM Opus Business SchoolWhen: 21-22 July 2008
Who should attend
• All committee advisors,
secretaries and managers.
• Administration officers.
• Executive secretaries and
assistants with responsibility for
committee support.
• Anyone whose responsibilities
include the organisation of elected
members and political meetings.
Negotiating and Managing Conflict
Venue: Brentwood Hotel
16 Kemp St
Kilbirnie
Wellington
When: 24 & 25 July 2008
Who should attend
This course is aimed at all staff
working in local government,
especially those involved in:
• managing individual or group
conflict;
• negotiating with internal and
external stakeholders;
• enforcing compliance to local
authority regulations and by-laws;
• negotiating resolution of issues
between departments;
• mediating conflict resolution and
agreement between groups;
• negotiating resolution to issues
with customers and colleagues.
Local Government Community Plan Conference
Venue: Christchurch
When: 11 and 12 August 2008
Who should attend
• Chief executives
• Asset managers
• Strategic planners
• Corporate planners
• Community development planners
• Consultative process staff
• Central government staff with
responsibilities for working with
local government
... and anyone else with
responsibilities in the area of
community outcomes.
Team Leaders’ Course
Venue: Wellington
When: 25-29 August 2008
Who should attend
This course is intended for all
employees in local government who
Page 5 of 6
Training
SOLGMPO Box 5538,Lambton Quay,8th Floor, Civic Assurance House,114-118 Lambton Quay,Wellington,New Zealand
Tel: 04 978 1280Fax: 04 978 1285Email: [email protected]
The electronic magazine from the New Zealand Society of Local Government Managers
PulseApril 2008
Hotu Manawa
From the SOLGM Opus Business Schoolare beginning, or who are involved
in, supervisory/team leadership
roles.
RMA Hearings Administrators’ Course
Venue: Wellington
When: 1-2 September 2008
Who should attend
This training will be of value to
anyone who is:
• new to the role of RMA and/or
hearings administrator;
• a committee secretary/advisor;
• a specialist RMA hearings
administrator looking for an
update on current good practice;
• looking to further their own
career or encourage the career
development of others in the area
of RMA administration;
• interested in an opportunity to
All inquiries about Business School events should be directed to:
Carolyn Lampp, Event Co-ordinator, on
Ph: 04 978 1243
Fax: 04 978 1285
email: [email protected]
meet and discuss areas of common
interest with other RMA hearings
administrators;
• a general RMA planning
administrator with hearings as part
of their role.
Page 6 of 6
SOLGMPO Box 5538,Lambton Quay,8th Floor, Civic Assurance House,114-118 Lambton Quay,Wellington,New Zealand
Tel: 04 978 1280Fax: 04 978 1285Email: [email protected]
The electronic magazine from the New Zealand Society of Local Government Managers
PulseApril 2008
Hotu Manawa
SOLGM is an incorporated society
established on 1 January 1988.
SOLGM’s Vision is:
Professional quality leadership by
the Society’s members providing
better local government managers.
SOLGM has approximately 580
members throughout all local
authorities in New Zealand,
comprising:
• chief executives;
• second-tier managers reporting
to the chief executive;
• managers with significant
management, policy or strategic
development responsibilities;
• non managerial staff (associate
members).
These members span all disciplines
required in local government
– general management,
financial management, strategic
management, policy development,
economics, engineering,
regulatory (resource management,
building control, food licensing,
etc), community development,
recreational and cultural
management.
This membership provides SOLGM
with an extremely rich resource of
professional, technical, and practical
experience and knowledge to
draw upon in dealing with all local
government issues.
A Code of Ethics defines
the expected integrity and
professionalism of members of
SOLGM.
SOLGM is led by an Executive
Committee, comprising the
President, two Vice Presidents, and
six Executive Members.
SOLGM pursues its vision through
the following institutional
arrangements:
• SOLGM Opus Business School
training and professional
development programmes;
• Centre of Excellence – promotion
of “good practice”;
• Local Government Online
(a local government portal
website – jointly owned with the
Association of Local Government
Information Management, Local
Government New Zealand, and
Civic Assurance);
• National Office in Wellington;
• six branches (four in the North
Island and two in the South
Island).
SOLGM is funded from member
subscriptions, industry good
contributions, trading activity, and
sponsorship.
About SOLGMFind out who we are and what we can do for you
SOLGMPO Box 5538,Lambton Quay,8th Floor, Civic Assurance House,114-118 Lambton Quay,Wellington,New Zealand
Tel: 04 978 1280Fax: 04 978 1285Email: [email protected]
The electronic magazine from the New Zealand Society of Local Government Managers
PulseApril 2008
Hotu Manawa Find out who we are and what we can do for you
SponsorshipSOLGM is particularly grateful to its “Family of Sponsors”.
Principal Sponsors: Civic Assurance, MWH and Simpson Grierson.
Supporting Sponsors: Infor, Audit NZ, Datamail, Deloitte, Jardine Lloyd Thompson and Downer EDI Works.
SOLGM also acknowledges the sponsorship support from New Zealand Post and Opus International Consultants.
General Enquiries:
Tel: 04 978 1280
Email: [email protected]
SOLGMPO Box 5538,Lambton Quay,8th Floor, Civic Assurance House,114-118 Lambton Quay,Wellington,New Zealand
Tel: 04 978 1280Fax: 04 978 1285Email: [email protected]
The electronic magazine from the New Zealand Society of Local Government Managers
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PulseApril 2008
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Contact Lara Sarich
Tel 04 978 1287
Email: [email protected]
Pulse is published by the
New Zealand Society of
Local Government Managers.
Who’s who?President:
Steve Parry
Tel: 06 209 0300
Email: [email protected]
Vice Presidents:
Ross McLeod
Tel: 09 836 8000
Email: [email protected]
Athol Stephens
Tel: 03 477 4000
Email: [email protected]
Chief Executive:
David Smith
Tel: 04 978 1282
Email: [email protected]
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