In this edition

• Celebrating New Ideas - 2009 New Zealand Post Group Local Government Excellence Awards

Entries are now open for the 2009 New Zealand Post Group Local Government Excellence Awards.

One of this year's categories is Joined-up Local Government. This category highlights excellence and innovation by local authorities in working with other key stakeholders such as central government agencies.

Are you part of an agency that has been involved in a joint project with one or more local authorities that you believe would be of interest to others in the local government sector? If so, encourage your local authority partners to take this opportunity to share their accomplishments.

• Systems thinking for solving complex problems - workshop

This workshop introduced ‘systems thinking’ as a tool for helping central and local government work better together and address complex problems.

The workshop was led by Professor Kambiz Maani, an internationally renowned expert in systems thinking and sustainable strategies. His presentation covers the theory, tools and language of systems thinking.

• Community Organisation Grants Scheme (COGS) - applications open 1 June

The Community Organisation Grants Scheme (COGS) is a community-driven government-funded scheme providing essential support to non-profit, voluntary and community organisations.

Applications open on 1 June and close on the last Friday of July.

Every year, over $14 million of COGS funding is distributed to more than 3000 community groups. Most grants are for $3000 or less, and contribute to ongoing running costs (such as rent, travel, volunteer and administration expenses), to hosting hui, fono or community workshops, or toward project development costs.

Local Distribution Committees (LDCs) consider and make decisions on grant applications from groups within their local communities. Each LDC sets local priorities.

• Communities at the centre - bringing Canadian and Opotiki experience to Wellington

A recent seminar looked at local economic development by bringing together Canadian experiences and a contemporary New Zealand case study – Opotiki.

Participants heard from Mark Cabaj, from the Tamarack Institute for Community Engagement in Canada, and Vaughan Payne, Opotiki District Council CEO.

Mark shared his current conclusions about community economic development. Vaughan discussed the Opotiki community's efforts to improve local economic conditions through the re-development of Opotiki Harbour.

Following the presentations, a workshop looked at how central government can more effectively engage with local government and local communities to achieve local priorities.

• Territorial authority guidance on the Waste Minimisation Act 2008

The Waste Minimisation Act 2008 requires territorial authorities to promote effective and efficient waste management and minimisation.

To assist territorial authorities in meeting their obligations under the Act, the Ministry for the Environment has released a guide on how to develop a waste management and minimisation plan.

• Local Services Mapping Update - planning for success

Horowhenua and Grey are the latest districts to use Local Services Mapping (LSM) to identify ways to improve the effectiveness of social services in their communities.

LSM is a locally-driven planning process that helps communities identify and address the social service needs of families.

LSM engages key stakeholders – social service providers and funders across the NGO sector, iwi and local and central government – and helps move funding and development from talk to action, so that it makes a measurable difference for families and communities.

Facilitated by the Ministry of Social Development’s Family and Community Services, LSM is carried out in partnership with local councils, with an expectation that it will also feed into the social wellbeing component of each council's long-term council community plan.

Currently, 46 districts throughout New Zealand are engaged in an LSM process, and approximately 31 community reports have been completed. The most recent reports

• AUT Auckland Governance Conference - presentations

"Governance for Auckland - What the Royal Commission Report means for you" was a conference recently hosted by the Local Government Centre at the Institute of Public Policy, Auckland University of Technology (AUT).

As an example of thought leadership in the local government sector, this conference included a range of business, community and academic leaders who presented on and discussed what the recent decisions on the governance of Auckland mean for the Auckland region.

• Ethnic Whispers - New Office of Ethnic Affairs newsletter

The Office of Ethnic Affairs has a new online newsletter, Ethnic Whispers.

• Rural and Urban Fire Authorities - developing merger guidelines

Minister of Internal Affairs, Hon Dr Richard Worth, recently announced that he does not intend to progress proposals to merge urban and rural fire services. The Minister has decided on a two stage approach to improve the delivery of fire services.

The short term focus has endorsed the voluntary amalgamation of rural Fire Authorities under current legislation. The Minister has asked the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) to assist the National Rural Fire Authority (NRFA) in this process.

It is envisaged that fewer and larger rural fire authorities will help address problems such as:

• duplication of resources in some areas and a lack in others
• variable standards of administration and service
• variations in fire permitting, weather monitoring systems and the approach toward staffing and training of firefighters.

DIA understands that a number of rural Fire Authorities that have been planning to become part of enlarged rural fire districts have put plans on hold, awaiting the outcome of the previous review of fire legislation.

Guidance material will be important to help rural Fire Authorities that are considering an enlarged rural fire district model. The NRFA, with input from DIA, has already started preliminary work on the guidelines.

The NRFA is convening a strategy workshop with a national stakeholders group in July. NRFA will present ideas for the guidelines at the workshop for feedback. This is the second meeting of this group, which first met in October 2008. Local Government New Zealand has also offered its support in preparing the guidelines.

Later this year the Minister is interested in looking further into areas which may need to be addressed by legislative change. These areas include inequities in the fire service levy system, widening the urban fire services mandate for response to building fires in rural areas, and reshaping existing fire service governance.

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