An update from the Auckland Arts and Culture Working Group on the Auckland governance transition and issues related to arts and culture in the new Auckland Council.

The update includes recent developments, ‘regional /sub-regional’ determination issues, the organisational structure of Auckland Council, an arts advisory group/regional arts & culture strategy and what you can do to help your organisation.

The Working Group has:

• Prepared submission guides to assist people in our sector to respond to the Auckland Transition Agency’s (ATA) CCO and Local Boards Discussion Documents
• Submitted a response to each of the discussion documents on behalf of the Auckland Arts and Culture Working Group
• Met on several occasions with members of the ATA and Community, Arts and Culture Workstream of the ATA, including Colin Dale, Jill McPherson, Louise Mason, and many staff members from the respective councils.
• Raised and discussed many issues with the ATA, the workstream leaders and central government reps that members of this group and the wider sector have concerns about, such as the regional/sub regional provisioning of arts and culture groups (ie: through CCOs or Local Boards), how groups may be able to work with more than one Local Boards, ways that Arts and Culture will be able to cement its place in the development of the new regional governance model…etc…
• James has travelled to the UK, the US and Europe and has looked at city governance models and arts and culture service provisioning models 

Recent developments, and things coming up:

• The ATA has produced summaries of the responses to the Discussion Documents
• The Third Bill handling Auckland governance change was passed
• Tier 1, 2 and 3 (most) positions announced. Many of these appointees begin their new roles in August and September 2010.
• The CCOs were formally approved by Cabinet. Members of CCO boards will be appointed by Cabinet, and it is our understanding that this process is underway / nearing completion.
• The new Auckland Council website is online
• Nominations for those standing for election (Auckland Council, Local Boards) open 23 July and close 20 August 2010.
• It is 80 days or so until the local body elections in the region finish (postal vote packs received c.22 Sept, and postal votes must be received by 9 October 2010)
• Auckland Council formally comes into being on 1 November 2010. The Auckland Transition Agency winds up.

Issues and Strategies that the Working Group is working on now:

The Working Group has been working to forge a good working relationship with ATA workstream people, and we have been told by those people that this has resulted in a high level of communication and interaction between our sector and the ATA. We have been told that this is not the case with many other sectors that the ATA interfaces with, and one of the tangible results of this has been the inclusion of arts and culture in the Spatial Planning process. As such, we have been able to raise and frankly and openly discuss many of the issues that people from the sector have identified. Here is a round-up of where we are at with those issues:

‘Regional /sub-regional’ determination issue:

Many are concerned about how their arts or cultural organisation will be considered in terms of how their group will be provisioned in the new regional governance structure, and what body(ies) they will have a reporting relationship with accordingly, both at transition and into the future. These are issues that we had hoped may become clearer through the CCO and Local Board Discussion Documents, but a great deal of detail was missing from those documents particularly in terms of how those organisations and facilities that are not clearly ‘local’ or already recognised as being totally regional. The ATA’s “Summary of Feedback and Actions – Auckland Council Local Boards” it states on page 5 that:

“The discussion document contains a high-level allocation of activities based on the principles in the Local Government (Auckland Council) Act 2009 (the act). The allocation of specific responsibilities and budgets to each local board is under way as part of the ATA’s responsibility to prepare Auckland Council’s first planning document. This work will help clarify the definition of and split between “local” and “regional” activities. This document is being prepared by the ATA and serves as Auckland Council’s Long-term council community plan for the 2010/2011 and 2011/2012 financial years. The process to prepare this document includes consolidating existing council budgets and assigning these between governing body, local board and CCO activities.”

At the end of June we raised this in a meeting with the incoming Manager Community Development, Arts & Culture, Louise Mason and Jill McPherson (current General Manager Arts, Culture and Recreation at Auckland City Council and seconded to ATA). Louise stated that the complex issues around this were as yet unresolved and that she is working as part of the taskforce charged with moving all the processes and arrangements for local boards along, with council officers representing all areas of councils and Karen Lyon (new Local Boards manager at tier 3). We talked through the issues from our sector's perspective and Louise and Jill acknowledged that all the issues were valid (difficulty of groups working across several local boards, difficult lines of communication and influence with LBs and AC staff, uncertainty of process now and how organisations stand, criteria for establishing regional /subregional etc). The Working Group offered itself as available for input into the process, which we will follow up on.

Arts Advisory Group / Regional Arts & Culture Strategy:

There is strong support from many in local and central government, as well as the sector, for the development of a strategy to ensure that arts and culture is prioritised and valued in the new regional environment and delivered on through all delivery agencies /channels: Auckland Council, CCOs, Local Boards. The Strategy would also be part of the Region’s Spatial Plan, and supporting policies. This idea backed by individuals in the ATA workstream, but is not part of the ATA’s mandate so they have asked us (our sector) to take the lead in forming an Arts, Culture and Creative Industries Advisory Group to do the following:

• To work with and assist Auckland Council officers while they are working on developing arts, culture and creative industries strategy(ies)
• To be visible and influential, and lobby politicians on behalf of arts, culture and creative industries issues in the region
• To be a watchdog group, particularly to ensure that strategy and policy flows through all delivery agents / organisations and 'hits the ground' / has real outcomes for the sector and community
• To be a sounding board and advisory group on arts, culture and creative industries issues and opportunities in the Region
• To be vocal champions of the importance of arts, culture and creative industries in the Auckland region

The sports and recreation sector have undertaken this type of regional strategy development some time ago. Their organisation is called ARPASS

The Arts Advisory Group needs to be closely aligned with the structure of the new Council, and regional governance. Recently, James from the Working Group met with members of the Greater London Authority. London’s arts and cultural strategy, and the value of the arts, culture and creative industries sector to London, is substantially championed by the Mayor’s Office, and flows through the GLA from the senior executive team down, supported by an influential and effective advisory body made up of sector representatives.

Working Party Group members have begun exploring this type of model with Mayoral candidates’ advisors, and the incoming Auckland Council CEO, as well as senior officers at the ATA / existing councils.

The ATA have supported the formation of such a regional Arts, Culture and Creative Industries Advisory Group for Auckland, which could be offered to the new Auckland Council to assist them with their work. Jill McPherson has asked Gail Richards to help the Working Group to develop the initiative. Therefore we would like to suggest that the next Auckland Arts and Culture Sector meeting be a working-meeting / workshop to further scope the set-up of such an advisory group, for those who are interested.

Organisational Structure of Auckland Council:

The organisational structure of Auckland Council is still being worked on, particularly for areas such as policy and planning which are in a total change process, however the structure has to be confirmed shortly as the ATA need that time to recruit and work with incumbents in change process and recruit for new positions prior amalgamation. Tier 4 and below jobs (for those positions in 'total change' and not already occupied by incumbents) will be advertised very shortly.

Some people in the sector and working in local government have expressed concerns to the Working Group about the generalist approach to planning in the planning/policy dept in the Auckland Council, and the lack of dedicated subject-matter specialist planners in the structure (it seems there will just be a pool of planners in charge of all community, arts and recreation work). They are also concerned with the split of policy and planning people from the operational / delivery arm. It seems likely there will be no dedicated policy people working under the same team as the arts but there may be some operational planners in the arts team (who will not involved in policy /governance).

What you can do to help your organisation:

• Identify who the people are that are influential to you /your organisation and talk to them about the issues that you are facing and the concerns that you have during this time of change (eg. Your local MPs, senior Council officers, your backers / supporters, media…)
• Keep your governing body, if applicable, well briefed as to what is happening now at this point of the transition process and ask them to work through their networks to influence and lobby on behalf of the organisation.
• Keep an eye and ear out as to who is standing for Local Boards and Auckland Council and go and talk to them about your group, what is important to you and what it will take to get your vote(s).
• Strengthen your relationships with those at your current Council who have had their roles confirmed in Auckland Council, and if possible talk to those coming into new roles.
• Take part in the workshop proposed by the Working Party to scope and plan for a regional arts, culture and creative industries advisory group. We’ll send put more details by email shortly.
• Do let the working group know if you have any questions, or if there are any issues you would like us to find our more about, or to further with the ATA.

Please distribute this to your networks.  To be added to the mailing list email maggie@artistsalliance.org.nz

Auckland Arts and Culture Working Group: Maggie Gresson, Anne Rodda, James McCarthy, Candy Elsmore

Contact details:

Maggie: maggie@artistsalliance.org.nz
Anne:  anne@writersfestival.co.nz
James: james@tetuhi.org.nz
Candy: candy@xtra.co.nz