The following Notice of Motion has been signed by 5 members of the Kaipātiki Local Board and is on the agenda of our 17 April 2019 business meeting for consideration (signed PDF included below). It is signed by Kaipātiki Local Board members John Gillon, Danielle Grant, Adrian Tyler, Anne-Elise Smithson and Paula Gillon:

In accordance with Standing Order 2.5.1, we hereby give notice that we would like to move the following motion at the 17 April 2019 meeting of the Kaipātiki Local Board:

Recommendation:
That the Kaipātiki Local Board:

a) request that Auckland Transport consider delegating the required responsibilities, duties, functions, and powers to allow

1. landowner approval,
2. prioritisation of proposed projects, and
3. approval of related budgets

to the respective local board, where they affect roads or assets in the local street network, noting that this is allowed for under section 45 “Delegations” of the Local Government (Auckland Council) Act 2009, in particular clauses (1) and (8).

b) request that where any required responsibilities, duties, functions, or powers to give effect to (a) are determined to be contrary to the Local Government (Auckland Council) Act 2009 or any other legislation, that an equivalent process is found (such as Auckland Transport formally adopting local board resolutions).

c) note that local boards currently have the equivalent delegation as outlined in (a) in regards to assets, projects and land administered by the Community Facilities department of Auckland Council, and this may be a suitable model for Auckland Transport to consider adopting.

d) request that this Notice of Motion and resolution are circulated to all local boards for their information and consideration.

Background:
According to section 10 of the Local Government (Auckland Council) Act 2009, the purpose of local boards is to enable decision-making by and on behalf of local communities:

However local boards are currently excluded from any decision-making related to Auckland’s roading network, public transport network, and road corridor infrastructure located within the respective local board area. Despite the large sums of public money being spent in this sector, local boards are often only asked for informal feedback on transport or roading proposals, which undermines the purpose of local boards, prevents local governance, disenfranchises the local community, and denies electoral accountability.

In the above recommended motion, we are proposing a way to redress the lack of democratic accountability and local governance through a mechanism that currently exists within legislation. In section 54 of the Local Government (Auckland Council) Act 2009 (reproduced in attachment A), Auckland Transport may delegate (within specified limits) “any of its responsibilities, duties, functions, and powers” to “1 or more local boards”.

We believe that as a publicly-owned and publicly-funded body that is part of a democratic city entity, that this is something that Auckland Transport is duty-bound to seriously consider and through this proposal, we are requesting it to do so.

The below PDF includes signatures and attachment A: