Brian Anderson The Western Front www.sunlive.co.nz

Impotent community boards are being subverted by a new community communication structure called the Omokoroa Model. This was revealed in the first ever minutes of the new Council Community Participation Committee.

The dangerous, restrictive, divide-and-rule practices the council has developed over the last ten years is now confirmed and elevated to council policy. The strategy was used to render community boards ineffective, to shield the council from community interference in planning and direction, while reducing community participation to the level of service requests. The system is all Omokoroa based, driven and controlled. The rest of us are supposed to shut up and catch up.

The put downs of community boards have been successful with most residents low level of expectation now misinterpreted as public apathy. Community boards were never funded for more than postage stamps. There was no money for letter drops, meetings or advertising. Two way communication with the council was no more effective than the public democracy sessions before the non-democracy board meetings. The mayor was the only one allowed to report on council matters to the public in newspapers, but the major weapon in the demise of community boards was the councillors' takeover of communication at board level. Councillors were meant to be the communication links between the council and the boards and should never have usurped the community boards. A coven of councillors, broadcasting out of Omokoroa, led the charge against boards and vociferously attacked Waihi Beach's attempt to leave the Western Bay. The same councillors are responsible for the development of the Omokoroa Model.

The Omokoroa Model is simple. Any resident can form a group, become a squeaking bearing, receive a promise of a light oiling and have a chat with a councillor – it doesn't matter which one. The councillor then reports to the Community Participation Committee, who in turn passes their interpretations and recommendations on to the Strategy and Policy Committee. The process seems unwieldy, with perhaps up to 60 groups or more demanding attention at any one time. The model might seem to offer a possible alternative to community boards, but the way the system has been introduced reveals that something stinks. It is not just the pipeline problem. A few councillors have been conspiring to advance Omokoroa at the expense of the rest of the district. No real plan is revealed and the minutes betray Omokoroa's lack of direction from council for their next step. This mismanagement of the process will do nothing to inspire the rest of the Bay to follow the model or trust the council. The minutes contain evidence of arrogance, collusion, small minded politics and council mismanagement.

The minutes reveal all

The arrogance is revealed in the Community Partnership Committee's minutes. The minutes explain how requirements from local government at national level were not welcomed and would be ignored and that all politicians should be supporting council's opposition to perceived interference from the Local Government Authority. The Maori Forum already has direct access to council and is bypassing community boards, but the partnership committee believes it should get a better understanding from Maori and states that the Maori Forum should be linked to them. They admitted that the last three months of community board training had taken community boards down a different path. This could have been a deliberate move to hide the new development or it could be just a lack of communication within council. The boards were unaware of the changes and the minutes recognise that there is unfinished business with council, who still have to clarify the roles of boards, council and community groups. It states that only Omokoroa has a satisfactory working model of the new approach and all others had to be brought up to the same level.

The Community Participation Committee includes all of the Omokoroa/ Kaimai councillors, but not one councillor comes from Katikati, Waihi Beach or Te Puke. This is denied in the minutes as a problem for true representation. When the council was asked to approve the new Community Participation Committee with no information on its purpose or background, a request for information was refused. All councillors pleaded ignorance at the time, but the motion was passed. The Omokoroa minutes now indicate that many councillors were aware, but didn't want any public discussion of their plans.

A number of residents have been tracking the wheeling and dealing in Omokoroa and have been amazed at the brazenness revealed in the minutes. A councillor, an early voice in the Omokoroa group, stood down at the last election stating that he was proud of what he had achieved and was satisfied. It has taken until now for his and his cronies' plan to come into the open. The only reason for these revelations at this time is that they now believe they have won their battle for Omokoroa to become the main centre of the Western Bay. To any reader wanting to take sides or express an opinion, I would strongly suggest the reader request a copy of the nine pages of the minutes from meeting CPS1 on March, 10, 2011 from WBOPDC or email me on [email protected]