by Michael Papesch

At the Annual Plan briefing on 5 February some Councillors were clearly concerned of the cost of any public consultation process for the 2026/27 Annual Plan, particularly when advised by CEO Darren Edwards that the estimated consultation cost for the recent representation review was estimated to be $120,000 and by implication that would be the cost of consulting on the AP.

So I asked about the actual cost of the representation review consultation.  The response is attached.

I asked for a separate breakdown of (a) the costs of actually doing the analytical work – work that needs to be done anyway, whether consultation is undertaken or not – and (b) the additional cost of consulting on what otherwise had to be prepared.  No all costs can be quantified – as KCDC’s timekeeping doesn’t allow for this.  But of the costs that can be quantified, they fall like this:

That is, the cost of a doing a public consultation is not $120,000, but about $51,000.  Even this seems high to me ($32,000 for printing and publications is a lot!).

Many folks are concerned that the decision whether to consult or not should not be determined by cost, but it is clear that some Councillors are swayed by this aspect alone.  There is a Council meeting on 12 March.  If there is anything to do with the Annual Plan on the agenda, I suggest that members of the public about the lack of consultation and inject these figures into that.