Cr Bill Faulkner Faulkners Corner www.sunlive.co.nz

In an ironic and unwitting twist of political fate it looks as if next year's financial rates increase will receive acceptance from most ratepayers.

Our finance controller, who sits behind elected members in the chamber as we add (mostly) and subtract (rarely) by majority to vote to the draft annual/three year/10 year plan, indicated an around 3.4% average rate increase after growth for 2012/13.

As noted last week, there were some things added in that could have been left out – nice-to-haves but in these times where, in my book, every dollar counts, these should not be at ratepayer expense.

Back to the unwitting act that saved around $1 million. We were presented with seven options of how to balance the water account, which has a $2.3 million deficit. The deficit is due mainly to your diligence in saving water as council had initiated, with water metering. By you saving water, council doesn't collect enough money. Water is a stand- alone account and, like many council activities, there is no cross-subsidy. Collect too much and the money stays in the water account, collect too little and council have to charge more.

Only 102 submissions on water charges were received and there are around 52,000 rated water consumers. After lengthy debate it was moved the option that kept the fixed charge at $26 and increased the volumetric charge to $1.70 per cubic metre. This seemed to be the most favoured option out there in ratepayer land. It rewards frugal and sustainable water consumption as well or more than other options and will clear the deficit by 2016 on present consumption levels. Of course a dry summer will increase consumption and increase water revenue. This past year rainfall was up around 25% over summer (what summer?) and revenue was down accordingly. This passed by majority vote with Larry Baldock (along with others) not supporting but noting that he wouldn't die in the trenches over it, but he would vote against it because 'he felt like it”. That's democracy.

Wayne Moultrie supported the resolution and drew the analogy that 'it was like incremental frog boiling”. You increased the charges by small incremental increases just like putting a frog in a pan of cold water on a stove and slowly turning up the heat. The frog doesn't realise it is being boiled. Oh dear!

After the debate our finance controller alerted us to the surprise side-effect and that was the draft plan had allowed for a doubling of the fixed water charge to $52. By council not doing this it had been possible to knock $1 million out of next year's budget. So that will make a substantial cushion for some of the nice-to-have expenditure. Without those nice-to-haves the rate increase would have been even less. C'est la vie! No media present for the last day either! It's interesting reading their take on it as they interview their keyboards!

The idea development contributions (DC) could be substituted by a general target rate across all ratepayers to encourage development and simplify a complex DC system was floated by Larry Baldock. Someone said this would be going back to the 'good old days”. Well I was there, and no they weren't good – in fact they were bad. The year before I got on council (with no development contributions) the proposed rate increase was 33% but this was reduced to 29%. As I recall it the council decided to not buy a steamroller to appease the many peasants including me who were protesting loudly. (In those days council had its own Works Department).

On majority vote Fergusson Park won't get another toilet block nor a refurbishment of the existing block. An increase to the Civil Defence budget by $52,000. Murray Guy and Catherine Stewart wanted ratepayer funding for a sign at Mission Cemetery. David Stewart and I said it could be better progressed as a City Partner project.

A $200,000 contribution towards repair of Oropi Gorge Road, where road instability is causing contamination of the Tau Tau Stream which supplies the Joyce Road microfiltration water plant. It was thought that protection of our plant and water supply was far more important than cross-boundary responsibility issues.

A request for the evaluation of a target rate on Merivale area to increase funding for the Merivale Community Centre was promoted by Terry Molloy. Discussion followed and it was felt that a $100 or so per ratepayer increase would not be welcomed in Merivale. Mayor Stuart Crosby said there were other ways council supported Merivale.

In yet another tactical gem Central Government has pulled the pin on funding for the Safe Cities programme. By majority vote ratepayers will step up to replace the $20,000. No funding for Waikato-based Opus orchestra but on a 6-5 vote council will write a letter of support. Dangerous stuff – write a letter in support and the next step is ratepayer funding?

$23,482 to place protective covers over 40 stormwater manhole covers that ‘pop' during storm events. All new manholes will have these protective devices.

I asked the CEO if he thought that the eight security guards on the supposedly failing Matapihi Footbridge was overkill and he said it wasn't. In fact more were needed. Next day security was reduced to four. He said cyclists had been seen remounting their bikes after being told to dismount. Security told Wayne Moultrie that 30-40 people had used the walkway between 3am and 1pm. Some of these were the same people going backwards and forwards to Matapihi. Estimated costs of repairs is $770,000. Security $10,000. Consultants and peer review $50,000 approx. Temporary works $3000 plus $1500 per month ongoing during works. Pilot Bay Boardwalk is budgeted at around $300,000. Media reports that this could have been better spent amount to nothing. As they weren't at the meeting the media didn't learn that the Port Company is putting up $200,000 of this in a generous gesture of good corporate citizenship.

This week's mindbender: Engineering is the art of modelling materials we do not understand into shapes we cannot precisely analyse so as to withstand forces we cannot properly assess in such a way that the public has no reason to suspect the extent of our ignorance.