Tauranga City Council hides things from you in the following ways:
• Funding TCC’s loss making projects with Ratepayer debt.  Why?  This allows the Council to re-label Ratepayer subsidies for its financial disasters as loan repayments.
• The establishment of Council Controlled Organisations - e.g., Tauranga City Aquatics (TCAL) and Tauranga City Venues (TCVL) that can rebuff Citizens’ requests for financial information by claiming the details are commercially sensitive.
• Splitting losses on failed Council projects across CCOs and Council accounts.  Council states TCAL makes an operating profit, yet the ratepayers cough up millions every year to fund TCAL assets.
• Sending out unviable information for public consultation.  e.g., the 2009-2019 Long Term City Council Plan (LTCCP) was roundly criticised by the Auditor General as unsustainable. Therefore, the LTCCP ratepayers were being asked to comment on could never have been implemented in the first place.
• Putting projects out for public consultation and then ramping up project costs after the public submissions.  e.g., Tauranga Sports & Expo (TISEC) costs escalated to $39 million and counting, with a current guesstimate of around $50 million, having regard to current geotech issues.
• Claiming to have made a $300 million reduction in LTCCP spending when the costs Council are supposedly saving never really existed in the first place. BEWARE! When things are hidden, anything can happen.
S Paterson, Arataki.