Measuring our performance

Today, I want to update you on another milestone in our drive to make your council a progressive, innovative and transparent organisation. Before, I do that, I want to pay tribute to Mayor John Carter’s mother, Gwen, who passed away early on Monday morning. Councillors, Council staff and many residents will know Gwen. Even though she was in her late 90s, she often accompanied the Mayor on his many public engagements around the district. I know this time together meant a lot to them both: Gwen loved being out in the community, alongside her son; and it was a precious opportunity for John to spend time with his mother, to keep her active and included.

During her final years, Gwen was a resident at the Claud Switzer Residential Care home in Kaitaia. Te Hiku residents will know how important ‘Switzers’ is to the community. Many have become familiar with this facility as whanau members have grown older and required extra care. Switzers does a fantastic job and I want to thank all the staff there for their dedication and the support they provide residents. His fellow councillors and Council staff are doing all we can to support John so he and his wife Leoni can share this time with their family. We wish them well.

It seems hard to believe, but it has now been three years since Far North District Council became part of Local Government New Zealand’s new excellence programme, CouncilMARK. Joining this programme was part of our commitment to becoming a more transparent organisation open to outside scrutiny. It was also an opportunity to gain an independent and unvarnished assessment of how well we deliver our services.

In April 2017, assessors visited our offices and rated us on four priority areas: leadership, finance, service delivery and community engagement. We were then provided with an overall quality rating ranging from AAA to C. We didn’t receive a perfect AAA score. However, we did receive a creditable B rating, putting us in the middle of the field.

We have since put in a huge amount of work implementing an extensive business improvement programme that addresses issues identified by the assessors. I know we have made significant advances in three years, including establishing teams dedicated to improving the way we engage with our community, especially Māori. We have also refocussed key parts of the organisation to make it easier for staff to do their jobs, improve productivity and deliver more effective services to residents.

CouncilMARK assessors will be visiting us again in September and I know they will find an organisation more focused, and with improved customer services. Improving our grade will have real-life consequences. It will help us build public confidence in what we do. That will make it easier to recruit and retain the talent we need so we can more effectively deal with the economic, climate and infrastructure challenges we face.