Council bullshit continues to grow

A discarded copy of The Press lay on a bench seat in a café in Hanmer Springs. The front page story leaped out at me, given my past career in Communications and PR.

‘Communications overload’ it announced and was referring to the number of communications staff at Christchurch City Council and Ecan. I’ve had first-hand experience with both organisations.

The article informed readers that Environment Canterbury has 56.6 full-time positions in its communications and engagement group. My jaw dropped. It went on to say that Christchurch City Council has 44 positions. I felt anger that so many such positions were being paid for by ratepayers and that the work they do is, as the article suggested, ‘smoke and mirrors’ rather than substance or a service to their ratepayers. They do not measure how successful they have been so they cannot be held accountable for lacklustre performance.

I once worked on a very short term contract for CCC. I was crushed by a toxic culture where initiative was punished, innovation was ignored or discouraged. It was all about image control yet they really had no idea how to make a positive difference in the communities they are supposed to serve. There are some good individuals working at each of these organisations but they can’t make a difference because the system will not allow it. Inertia is boss. On the other hand, you don’t need so much image control if you are actually doing good stuff honestly. Everything is naturally in alignment and many ratepayers become supportive if they can smell ‘authenticity’.

The article by journalist Keiller MacDuff pointed out that a great way of measuring effectiveness is the degree of voter turnout, which, at just 36%, is appalling. In 2018 CCC asked me for a copy of my innovative and effective Waitakere City Council communications campaign to increase voter turnout in 2007. My campaign was a mixture of tried and true activities but 60% of my campaign focussed on fresh, innovative ways to engage with voters and to help new residents to engage in the election process. I increased voter turnout slightly.  Other, smaller district councils such as Rotorua and Kapiti asked me if they could use some of my ideas. Everywhere else turnouts went down. The Minister for Ethnic Affairs wrote a letter to me congratulating me on my methods and results. The Public Relations Institute conferred on my campaign and evaluation of it a status of finalist in the annual PR awards. WCC wanted to use my expertise again with an increased budget but, sadly, that never happened as WCC and other Auckland councils were destroyed in the creation of the monstrous Supercity.

What did CCC do with the copy of my campaign (my and WCC’s intellectual property) that I generously (with permission from Auckland Council) gave them? Nothing, clearly!

 I was actively dissuaded by a supervisor from attending joint meetings with Ecan on a joint partnership project even though I had originally been told to participate as a CC reresentative? Ecan representatives were more than happy with my contributions so what was the problem. Was I becoming too 'friendly', effective perhaps? It seemed to me CCC had no intention of cooperating even if it was a legitimate partnership.

Let’s put this communications bloat and accountability in perspective - at Waitakere (a major West Auckland Council before it was dissolved) we had ten (yes 10 including management) staff on our communications and engagement team. We had an open and innovative mindset and we were in sync with environmental principles. New ideas were welcomed. Our ratepayers were often proud of our efforts and enjoyed getting involved in our projects. How many councils can you say that about these days. We were NZ’s first and only EcoCity.

I was, among other things, responsible for encouraging ratepayers to use a lot less drinking water by changing their behaviour. Reduce water demand by 25% by 2025 despite an increasing population. That’s a big call but we knew we would not need to spend heaps of money on new water infrastructure or drown parts of our environment just to create another dam if folks could understand and change their water behaviours. We supported residents’ efforts in many practical ways such as rebates for raintanks and solar waterheating. We did not dissuade people from doing the right sustainable things. And it was working. By the end of 2010 we were on track to meet our goal. And then all that measurable good work was murdered and Watercare took over everything.

I shook my head in dismay and anger to see an article revealing such ridiculous staff numbers employed to do stuff-all but make all the negative stuff and lack of advancement invisible. The journalist was right.

These bloated teams are apparently necessary to provide information on council services and events, elections and emergency responses. I call BULLSHIT!! We at WCC did it all more effectively with 10 staff.

I am a Three Waters specialist in communications. I have taught at tertiary level how to put together effective environment campaigns involving water and energy, to students completing Water Technology degrees at the Universite de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France. 

I was good at what I did but these days in NZ I am unemployable by any organisation because I get good things done and help ratepayers feel good about Council and themselves in fresh 'unthinkable' ways. I have international experience in sustainability and Three Waters but I am not welcome here. But hey, let’s employ heaps of people with less passion, experience, honesty, creativity to pour out spin, on their average salaries of $98,000 - $119,000. I earned half that.

Wouldn’t YOU be pissed?

Photos: a fraction of the extensive workspace for the communications team at CCC, Choice, the spokesperson for my elections campaign, Splash, my spokesperson for Three Waters, Eco Day via WCC stand.