Franken-Council

My thoughts following further examination of the Waterford Amalgamation Committee Report, Putting People First, Waterford City & County Council Implementation Committee Terms of Reference, Limerick City & County Council Implementation Committee Terms of Reference and Implementation Report and the Draft Waterford Implementation Committee Working Document on Customer Service & Workforce Planning:

(I wish to preface this article with the caveat that I completely oppose amalgamation but in the event of it proceeding there are questions which must be posed. I also acknowledge that the latest Working Paper is a Preliminary View and in theory, open to change. However I also know from experience that once the ink has reached the paper very little tends to change, in reality.)



Issues for City:

Who will wake up every morning thinking about how to drive Waterford city forward? Not one senior staff will remain dedicated solely to our city. Currently there are 4 Directors and one City Manager doing this day in day out. Post amalgamation, the City Manager, Directors Of Service and Senior Staff will have to worry about everything from Ferrybank to Youghal Bridge. In my opinion the City Manager himself will have so many distractions already he will not be able to dedicate the time required (as he does currently) to driving the city as the regional economic Gateway. What has this focus delivered in recent years? Well, the House of Waterford; two World Class Museums; Winterval and the tourism they have generated – to name but a few! These have been serious game-changers for Waterford City.

The Document talks about the amalgamated authority being split between Dungarvan and the City with the Manager and (some) Directors having offices in both. There are financial implications but more importantly, time implications. Time spent on potholes in Knockanore is time not spent on our city. Time spent driving is time not spent on our city. But we aren’t dealing only with potholes. Waterford County Council has massive projects in planning which will require huge time and energy to deliver. From my memory some of these include, the seven villages sewerage scheme, and the no small matter of a €6.9 MILLION Euro deficit. From the Citys’ point of view this will take away from the time and energy that needs to be spent on the City agenda.

In my opinion one of the greatest strengths of Waterford City Council has been its CAN DO attitude and its ability to think outside the traditional Local Authority box. I fear this innovation will be lost due to the sheer workload which will come with the merger.

The end result of any product directly relates back to the amount of time, effort and detail put into it in the first place. Six Directors simply cannot do the same amount of work as nine and they can’t be expected to especially with hugely increased workloads. Waterford City has built its reputation as a Local Authority (best in Ireland according to Chambers Ireland in 2010) on quality and delivery. The House of Waterford Crystal, Viking Triangle, Medieval Museum and Nature Park are five star attractions for Waterford City. There is simply no way all of these would have been achieved in the same timeframe, in a merged authority.

The Amalgamation committee promised a stronger Unified Authority. What they’re now proposing is a far cry from that. What is actually happening is Waterford will be left with a split, depleted authority operating from two ‘Headquarters’ 45 Kilometres apart. No other City Council (including Limerick) will suffer this disadvantage. And in my opinion this would not be viewed as best practice by any private business.

If, as proposed, the Council meet alternately in the City & Dungarvan there are cost implications. Also in terms of meetings, City members will move from a current 15 person Council to a 32 person Council while for County Councillors it will move from 23 to 32! The meetings, in my opinion, will be ungovernable, with consensus being very difficult to achieve and likely to break down on city/county lines.

The main reason being given for merger is ‘efficiencies’ and ‘cost savings’. The City Manager has already said he doesn’t agree that the extent of savings according to the Amalgamation Report are achievable and that there will be significant costs involved before any savings will be made. In any organisation before you would undertake the level of change we are being asked to make you would simply HAVE TO HAVE the costs fully documented. Why has no cost/benefit analysis been produced? We are operating in a complete vacuum when it comes to the costs and indeed, the savings.

The Amalgamation Document mentions Shared Services. There is a Shared Services exercise being undertaken across all Local Authorities at National Level at present. Some savings being attributed to the merger will happen anyway under this initiative, in my opinion.



National Issues:

Putting People First is the policy document on Local Government launched by Minister Hogan late last year. There has been no decision at national level on many of the proposals contained in that document. There are issues about the Transfer of reserved functions, budgets and the ability of districts to raise additional funding which they would have local discretion to spend . None of this has been decided yet at National level - we are designing our system prematurely – effectively blindfolded!

Incidentally, if functions are not transferred (and I suspect they will not be) then the districts are, in effect, nothing more than glorified area committees, regardless of whether you call yourself a city or a Metropolitan District, or whether you have a Mayor or Chain or any other meaningless words and paraphernalia.

I see too, in Putting People First, that King Phil intends to issue his own Charters for Metropolitan Areas...what’s the bet that Kilkennys current Borough Council (the area they refer to as their City with a current population of 8,700) will be expanded to the required Metropolitan Area size of 20,000? Long live the King!

Economic Development:

While some in favour of the merger will hold up the position of Director of Economic Development as one of the major advantages of the amalgamation, this as far as I am concerned is very disingenuous as all gateway cities will have this Directorate according to Putting People First.



The ‘if it’s good for Limerick surely its good for Waterford’ argument:

The wording of the Implementation Committees terms of reference for Limerick & Waterford are almost identical except for two glaring differences. Section 14 of the Limerick terms of reference state that the new Limerick authority will “establish appropriate joint arrangements with Clare County Council under local Government law to ensure the most effective discharge of functions in the areas which the Local Government Committee recommended for transfer to the new Limerick Authority”. Interestingly there is no mention at all of this in the Waterford document in relation to South Kilkenny. This can hardly have been an oversight as otherwise the document is almost word for word, identical. Also interestingly the Limerick amalgamation committee actually looked at this issue whereas the Waterford amalgamation committee decided (or were directed!) very early on that they could not look at the Kilkenny issue....

You might ask, if this is good for Limerick, why is it not good for Waterford. The issues for Limerick & Waterford are NOT the same:

• In Limerick the two HQ’s are in the City so geography is not an issue.

• There is NO county town in Limerick.

• There will be hardly any change in service delivery or structures. Main base of COUNTY is in Limerick CITY with area offices. There will be no change.



Overall Local Government Reform:

Originally the plan was to reduce from 34 to 24 City & County Councils. Phil Hogan in Putting People First has now decided that there will be no more mergers after Waterford (a reduction of just 3!). If Minister Hogan believes that the savings will actually be so great with mergers, why not implement the original numbers?

WHY OH WHY if this is such a good idea, isn’t Galway being merged????





Back to Waterford:

The only other difference between the Limerick & Waterford Implementation Committee Terms of Reference is that Limerick are also to put in place new arrangements to merge other bodies such as the City & County Development Boards, Joint Policing Committees, Enterprise Boards, and Local Development Companies (Section 11). There is no mention of this in the Waterford terms of reference. Why? Will we need yet another Committee after this one to do that?

For what it’s worth: I accept no-ones’ bona-fides in this. I accept NO re-assurances that what is right is being considered, for I see with my own two eyes that it has not been considered to date and therefore will most likely not be considered now.

Over 95% (from what I hear) of all submissions to the Amalgamation Committee were against it. (I have been unable to access copies of the submissions despite requesting them both from the Secretary to the Committee and from Phil Hogans’ Department.) Yet, those submissions, from what we can see in the resulting recommendation were ignored and the Committee proceeded in doing its masters bidding.

Now that even they can surely see that they have created a monster; still they persist. This does not augur well for any consultations or for my (or your) input at this stage to be properly considered now. Indeed I question at all why I am even bothering to consider engaging. But persist we must, if only – if this monster is allowed to gain life – to try and ensure that it does as little damage as possible!



Bottom line:

Waterford City Council is currently one of the best & most dynamic Local Authorities in the Country – by any Independent measure. It is now to be broken up in a manner which will seriously disadvantage the city for decades to come. We are being delivered a ‘Frankenstein Council’ (FRANKEN-COUNCIL) made up by cutting and splicing two councils together in a most inefficient manner.

Our energy & focus will be dissipated while other cities forge ahead with their agenda and development. And finally we will be reduced to County Town level, with our shiny Mayoral chain, playing at being a city while other cities secretly laugh at us, while they surge further ahead.

Reform of Local Government? Not for us, I’m afraid. Not in Waterford.

The Minister and most particularly the Implementation Committee have, and are continuing to create, a MONSTER. It matters to me and to every citizen in Waterford who can figure out that in this instance, the Emperor has no clothes.

Sadly our ancient city will continue to be eviscerated with the Minister’s, the Government’s and sadly, our local Government TD’s blessing.

I can hardly bring myself to watch...