Defending the four well-beings

Posted on 05-09-2012 10:31 | By YOGI

Looks all to be self serving to me

Posted on 04-09-2012 00:07 | By PLONKER

The Councils’ jurisdictions and priorities is a joke, the Local Government Act needs to force Councils as a first priority to be: accountable, prudent, a fiscally sensible and conservative. Tauranga has failed on all accounts, in the last 8-10 years under the current management the debt has blown out from $50m odd in 2002 and some $450m now with commitments imposed on ratepayers of some $200+m more and rising. If Council had to be “prudent, a fiscally sensible” then they would have to show that they were being so, that would place the onus of proof on those elected members voting for some silly spendups. I think that Elected Members “must vote to say that a spend of say more than $2m is a “significant transaction” and any vote for it means that the are accountable to the ratepayer for the losses from it, this will force serious and very carefully considered decisions to spend money that is “OUR” money. Currently Council has had a “free for all” spending spree without being questioned (secret meetings) and failing to account to those who voted them in, The best excuses are made, like “delegated authority” but really the buck stops with the Councilors, they are silly responsible anyway. There are too many cases to quote of how wayward the spending is at Council, anyone observant would have noticed the mega million wasted annually of day to day and capital spending. Bankrupting the Council is certainly not in the best interests of it ratepayers and fails on all accounts to meet the statutory obligation of “socially, economic, environmental, and cultural” WELL-BEING of the communities. The “absolute and universal” blow-out in council spending over the last decade on airy-fairy, nice-to-have social projects is indeed to the detriment of what should be councils’ core spending on water, drains and roads. That latter is where the money should have been spent prudently rather than the current scenario to date of all the nice-to-haves first then make all the excuses about growth for growth, borrow money and infrastructure spending later … as is the case now. But even all the spending as done all the “planning” did not result in any meaningful or useful planning (Smart Growth) that was remotely accurate. The four so called “well-beings” are a misnomer for the citizens of Tauranga. The proposed changes will mean that the spending will be diverted back to basics i.e. "good quality local infrastructure, public services and regulatory functions at the least possible cost to households and business". The concept is best for ratepayers but not for the wayward Councilors and the avidly following/leading management current ensconced at TCC. Of course Mayor Crosby would find “lots” of support for keeping the four well-beings at the local government conference he attended this week at TCC ratepayer’s expense. If they go then the excuse for “needing” to spend on “nice to haves” will vanish, that fact has got to be a welcomed “with open arms” type concept for local ratepayers how have been beaten up, punished and tortured for generations by the current hierarchy. Mayor Crosby is quoted as saying that “Tauranga has a strong focus on economic well-being” well what a joke that is… a single decision for example to eliminate 300 carparks at the Strand alone places another major nail in the CBD coffin commercially, they do not even realise the effect of that decision, thinking that a bit of “Nice to have new green grass” will be better and “good” and “nice” and all that. If only common sense could sneak in to Council and so eliminate the current knee-jerk reaction decision making processes. The Mayor says “I support reform and I believe our sector is due for reform ...” This is a joke, all that is being looked for here is to be able to continue as is as want, not reality wanted on this shift! Mayor Crosby says “Our message is we want to work in partnership with the Government to deliver good infrastructure and good community outcomes for all of New Zealand.” That is just a political posturing, nothing more, the reality is that they all want to carry on as is and not have anyone looking over the should and so ensuring some common sense prevails.

Posted on 03-09-2012 22:14 | By PLONKER

To change the rules now as all the money has already been spent on "nice to haves" by the many.

Posted on 03-09-2012 15:34 | By YOGI

Like they want all of these wonderful little toys and nice to haves and all that and do not want anyone including Government looking over teh shoulder and asking really awkward questions.

Posted on 03-09-2012 08:32 | By Phailed

I think this "Four Wellbeings" has resulted in heaps of extra expenditure and lots of written reports. Great if you’ve got the money to pay for it and you like bureaucracy. Not so good if you’re in a recession and people are struggling to pay the basics. But didn’t the government just give $150,000 of taxpayers money to the Hairy Mclary statues proposed for the waterfront??? Obviously we can’t be in a recession.