Major overhaul of regulatory arm of council underway

"This is the most important programme of quality improvement that has been undertaken by council for many years. It is vital that Auckland City Council upgrades our customer experience in the regulatory area and makes available top quality systems. It is a major area of interface with business." CEO, David Rankin.

Successfully balancing the twin demands of 'community guardianship' and 'customer service' is at the core of a thorough revamp of Auckland City Council's regulatory system.

"Auckland City Council recognises that there have been significant issues for businesses interfacing with our regulatory teams," says group manager Jenny Oxley. "People have told us they need consistency and certainty. They've told us they want to know what they have to do to meet consent requirements and how long will it take. We've set out with a comprehensive programme to deliver, over time, to these needs."

Every aspect of Auckland City Council's core regulatory processes is being reviewed and improved as part of the five year programme. The overhaul of regulatory procedures, guidelines, computerisation and customer service reflects the council's drive to enhance its customer services, while ensuring that quality standards are achieved on the ground. For the 300,000 plus regulatory contacts customers have each year with Auckland City Council, these changes will become more and more evident as improvements come on stream. 

Areas of focus are:

• Regulatory IT systems. Auckland City Council's computerisation of regulatory consenting, licensing and monitoring. "We bringing in new IT systems to help us do a good job. This includes a specialist local government property system, improved electronic document management, and a new customer relationship management system to support both property and customer-related transactions. A pilot has been undertaken, and a major systems implementation is expected in late 2008, after months of involvement from IT experts and Deloitte overseeing.
• A pre-lodgement programme for complex consents. The option to pre-lodge resource and building consents began in July 2008. Through this process, Auckland City Council is "putting the right people in the room, ensuring requirements are clear and issues are identified up front", says Jenny. "If there's information missing in an application, or an opportunity to streamline the approach, this will be identified early on." Case managers are put in charge of a single, complex consent. They are accountable for managing and tracking the consent, ensuring applications are not unduly held up, and for communicating clearly with customers along the way . Staff are also being given more clarity on decision making, allowing applications to maintain their momentum and not 'go on hold'. "We want staff to take action to get a resolution," she says, "So we're giving them the tools to do so." The council has also introduced an account management service for frequent customers, to support them in managing the regulatory requirements of their development portfolios.
• Guidelines and decision-making criteria clarified. Where relevant, guidelines and practice notes that the council uses to assess applications against regulations are being published on the web. "Our intent is to be as clear as possible in communicating the criteria council staff work to in making their decisions ," says Jenny. "The practice notes are guidelines to aid consistent interpretation of different rules, such as the Building Code or fire regulations. Once on the web, they will ensure that applicants and the council are working to the same rules. Our decision-making will be transparent."
• Accessible customer information. Auckland City Council is already making available more information to applicants on its website. For example: Building and developing in Auckland city makes available a wide range of regulatory and property-related information, advice and forms. Customers will be given improved access to property files, which they can now order on CD. Accredited consultants whose work the council approves and accepts, are also listed on the website - with more to come.
• Staff training and a customer service excellence programme. The concurrent, and most demanding leg of the overhaul is a staff training and customer service excellence programme encouraging staff members in the regulatory area to 'put the customer first'. "Our staff are proud of what they do, but they have high volumes of work. We need to ensure that they can have pride not only in their technical competence, but also in the customer experience they provide," says Jenny.
• Regulatory Advisory Board. A Regulatory Advisory Board has been established comprising experts from the sector to provide customer feedback or advice to council.

Ms Oxley says we will start to see the results of the changes from December.

"Businesses will begin feeling the results because their interaction with council, their understanding of compliance requirements and consenting and inspections processes will be easier."

Published October 2008