An overview of the implications of some recent council decisions and how they are changing the decision making style of the Tauranga City Council has been made public for the first time in a recent report from CEO Garry Poole.

'We had lot of discussion about how we operate, the way we operate and we have changed significantly changed our operating mode, but we haven't talked about these issues in a public forum,” says Garry at a recent council meeting.

'What we are saying is that over time what we have done is we have transitioned from being a council that has been primarily focussed on sound city foundation, infrastructure etc, to a council that is more focused on a wider area - talking about quality of life, quality of jobs built on a solid and sound city foundation.”

With the change of focus has come a change of outlook, says Garry. From being a council that looked back, it now looks forward - 70 per cent forward and 30 percent monitoring where it has been.

A lot of the council money is invested in areas that don't receive a lot of public attention; the three waters, sewers water and stormwater, transport, parks and reserves, recreation spaces etc.

'The reality that we face is that our return on investment in this area is not high in terms of reputation building,” says Garry.

'Because a lot of the things this area are givens, hygiene factors. You can't say to someone, ‘Come to Tauranga, we've got safe drinking water'. You can't say that in the western world; ‘Come to Tauranga, we effectively dispose of waste'.

'But the thing we have to watch in this area is when you get this area wrong, it can massively damage your reputation. Havelock North as a recent example of that kind of dynamic in action.”

The council decision to make Tauranga an internationally competitive city is going to have repercussions.

'We will all be aware that our average salary level for an internationally competitive city is exceptionally low,” says Garry.

'By increasing the quality of jobs we have in the city over time, we will increase that statistic and increase again the well-being for people in the city.

'How do we get there? We shift our focus from solely on the council balance sheet through to a wider focus, focusing on the city balance sheet, which is taking a wider view of the world to deliver that higher standard of living.”

When the council started the discussion about building the university in the CBD, the council's original stance was to sell the land at market value. Over time the council came round to giving the land worth about $5 million, to the project.

Similarly the Hairy Maclary statues project was originally saddled with a $150,000 maintenance bond, which the council rescinded.

'I recall at the opening reference was made to council removing that bond and the positive effect it had on the fund raisers,” says Garry.

It means the council is now collaborating more effectively with its partners in the city, and extending that collaboration to central government.

Garry says the city council obtaining $230 million interest free from the government infrastructure development fund marks the success of that collaboration.

Signs the communication is working can be seen in the questions and statements now coming from government figures concerning local government.

Six years ago the complaint from government figures was that rates were too high, now they are asking if rates are high enough, says Garry. It is the same with development contributions. Now government figures are asking if they are high enough to cover the cost of growth.

'Central government is starting to get an understanding of some of the challenges that we face,” says Garry. 'And it is starting to come to the party with some form of assistance in mind.”