Mike Baker also asked for consideration for mobility scooters along the route. The route will generally follow the Papamoa stormwater drain and although parts of it are already there, it will cost about $2 million for an asphalt surface. Imagine this: it’s also to encourage kids to ride bikes to school.

What a novel idea, or hang on, isn’t that what used to happen? The more things change the more they stay the same.
Staff confirmed that about $1 million will be spent upgrading Faulkners Corner (true!). For the uninitiated that’s the 11th Avenue, Cameron Road intersection which has a big crash rate. Services will be upgraded at the same time and that will be about half the $1 million cost. Unfortunately, these works will mean disruption to the surrounding business and elected members were at pains to ensure that contractors were to minimise this. We are critically aware of how these works affect retailers.

Every dollar counts
At monitoring committee elected members received the annual report from the Tangata Whenua collective committee. This performance report reported that all requirements had been met or exceeded. Long gone are the days when ratepayers shelled out for feel good talkfests and both Tangata Whenua and council representatives expressed satisfaction about how things work now. Budget was $72,220 rates funded.
Mayor Stuart Crosby asked that staff explain, yet again, how the city’s finances are structured. With the silly season now upon us, it is a good idea for all candidates to be able to be aware of the true facts even if they don’t want to use them. Of the city debt, about 33 per cent is rates funded, about 33 per cent is funded by development contributions and about 40 per cent by user fees and charges. Yes, yes I know it’s all ratepayer responsibility, but the picture is not as bad as some would paint it. Council will collect $89 million from the ratepayers this financial year.

Building it up
At full council there was an item in the confidential section of the meeting where council was asked “to avoid a potential crisis relating to the provision of Building Act compliance services”. Council has a legal obligation to ensure these services are available and the present service provider, CGAF Ltd is facing the very real possibility of ceasing business. The proposal being considered is that council purchase the assets of CGAF (ie. not purchase the business) in order to maintain service delivery to customers. This is not a case of the business going broke because of trading conditions – it’s to do with its ability to meet its legal obligations of trading. The decision will be made public shortly.

Rating the rater
John Cousins, who writes about council for the Bay Times, has been at it again with his personal opinion about elected members being published recently. It’s a source of mystery how he can do this constructively considering his lack of consistent attendance at all council meetings over the triennium. But that goes some way to explain his one dimensional view of things council. There’s a lot more to an elected member’s role than just turning up to meetings and putting on a display for John. In my view, John’s reporting gets half the story right half the time and at other times is more notable for the bits he leaves out. He is a past master at reporting that the bottle is half empty. John famously once told me “you know us Bill – we would never let the facts get in the way of a good story”. On the law of averages he must have got some of his “ratings” near the mark, but others were way wide of the mark.
Considering the amount of news story leads he gets from this column you might think his gratitude would have been reflected by him awarding me top brownie points but that wasn’t the case. (The Bay Times picks up a handful of copies at The Weekend Sun early each Friday morning and it’s a reasonable bet it’s not just to read Rogers Rabbits). So as has been the practice when he has done similar articles I will reciprocate with my ratings of John’s council reporting. In my view he does the community a disservice for the reasons given and more. Accordingly I will take a quote from his opinion of Hayden Evans where he concludes “There is no hope for Hayden” – well, it takes one to know one and I award John the lowest rating he gave, a ‘D’. I did, however, think a professional opinion of elected member’s performance would be really enlightening so in view of his recent resignation I asked Stephen Town if he would do it. He just looked at me with a huge grin, said nothing, and went back to his work.
By the time you read this I will be in China (at my expense!) along with the mayor, other politicians and the business trade delegation. I’ll try and get a column back to you, but my computer skills aren’t great and Julie, office administrator extraordinaire, who capably deciphers my handwriting and types this for you each week was sadly not included in the media delegates.