Council Achieves BB CouncilMARK Rating

Tuesday 30 October 2018

Central Hawke’s Bay District Council has turned a corner.

Central Hawke’s Bay District Council has received a BB rating from independent assessors as part of a local government excellence programme, reflecting the new leadership in place is enabling the Council to becoming highly responsive to current and emerging community needs.

In October 2018, Central Hawke’s Bay District Council received a BB rating after completing its inaugural assessment as part of the CouncilMARK™ local government excellence programme.
The result gives Central Hawke’s Bay District Council independent external confidence that the work started, and intended to continue, is on the right track, based on best practice in the sector.
The programme, designed by Local Government New Zealand, gives councils and communities an independent view on how their council is carrying out their role.

Mayor Alex Walker said the grading put Central Hawke’s Bay District Council on an even par with a number of its peers including Ruapehu, Masterton, Upper Hutt and Whakatane District Council’s
and reflects the significant work taken place to build trust through effective community engagement, communication and transparency.
The independent assessors made note of Council’s reputation being reinvigorated under the leadership of the Mayor, Council and Chief Executive which is leading a very clear sense of purpose and direction with strong community support as a result of community engagement described as a “best in class” approach.

Mayor Walker says her elected members had big aspirations for how Central Hawke’s Bay District Council should be delivering value for the community and their approach has been brave, patient and future-focussed. "We have been carefully putting the building blocks in place for two years now and I am incredibly proud of where we have got to. But this is still just the beginning and we have many challenges yet to work through. The CouncilMARK™ assessment gives us, and our community an incredible confidence boost to continue to move forward with surety."

The assessors also noted that while strong inclusive leadership to lead the transformational programme exists, the Council’s delivery of core infrastructure services to meet community expectations of performance has been compromised by inadequate investment in the past, and that courageous leadership will be required to secure funding and to maintain community support for necessary infrastructure upgrades.

"Taking part in the programme has given us an independent view on our strengths and weaknesses and it is incredibly heartening that the assessors, and a number of our key stakeholders, believe we are not just doing what we need to, but we are doing it well," says Chief Executive Monique Davidson.

Mrs Davidson also said the report was a reflection on the work of the whole team and reinforced the council's commitment to lifting its performance where it could to benefit its communities. "Of course like with anything, there is always room for improvement and we will be looking at the recommendations to develop an action plan in those areas we are not already addressing, to help take our performance to the next level," she said.

The full report is available on the Local Government New Zealand website

More about the CouncilMARK™ programme:

The CouncilMARK™ programme, developed by Local Government New Zealand, is designed to improve the public's knowledge of the work councils are doing in their communities and to support individual councils to further improve the service and value they provide to all New Zealanders.

Councils that participate in CouncilMARK™ are given a rating ranging from AAA to C, after being assessed across these four priority areas:

• Governance, leadership and strategy
• Financial decision-making and transparency
• Service delivery and asset management
• Communicating and engaging with the public and business.

Ends
Authorised by Chief Executive: Monique Davidson

14 January 2022

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