There appear to be moves afoot by some elected members to revisit the decision to site the proposed bus station on Willow Street.

For this decision, elected members not supporting either the Willow Street or Durham Street site were left with having to abstain from voting, which is what Bill Grainger had to do. Rick Curach and I were away on other council business and Hayden Evans and Greg Brownless were away on holiday.
In the interim the government has coughed up about $500,000 for the Willow Street site, which is the only one that gets enough brownie points under their criteria. So if you want to go to Durham Street, ratepayers will have to fund the entire project – just under $1 million, whereas Willow Street will require just under $500,000 ratepayer contribution. But that could be likened to saying that you saved $100,000 by not buying a new car when you didn't have $100,000 in the first place.
This raises the matter of tactical voting. If, say Bill Grainger and I abstained from voting because we were only offered two options, both of which we deemed unacceptable, then that might mean ratepayers get stuck with another $1 million for Durham Street. Vote for Willow Street to save $500,000 but we didn't support that either? As I've noted in columns recently we really have to focus on infrastructure necessities – stormwater for instance – that really affect ratepayers.

Targeted spending
The 2010 election campaign began in earnest from some elected members about two months ago as they looked to populist issues to raise their profile. That's not a criticism, it's an elected member function to debate issues, but it is important that the ratepayers' best interests are at the forefront of the agenda and motivation. In this case, it just may be a good option to do nothing. In the event this matter raises its head again, I would be seeking a much tighter resolution wording so that it doesn't get by on a minority split vote. Put simply, my preference is to not spend any money at all.

Large promises
It's 20 years ago that Tauranga City was amalgamated (and taken over by a Mount mayor/deputy mayor/committee chairs) with Mt Maunganui, and Tauranga County became Western Bay of Plenty District Council. The promises from central government at the time were very large – 'savings” – economies of scale – big benefits to ratepayers – and so on.
Unfortunately there was no definition of who would benefit and certainly no mention of who wouldn't.
The big winner was Papamoa followed by the Mount with Tauranga a distant third. Spend where the need was greatest was the catch cry as the former Mount Maunganui councillors were elevated to stardom. Again, that's not a criticism – they did what they thought best – but 20 years on and I look back and ponder that that is what we need to do for the city as a whole – spend where the need is greatest as a priority and if the need is not essential then don't spend at all.
As an aside in my opinion Auckland's amalgamation into a ‘Super City' will be a repeat of our experience except on a grand scale. It's a cunning plan to spread the burden of the shortfall for infrastructure funding. You can tell what's to gain with John Banks already running full page ads in the Herald promoting his candidacy. ‘Beware of the Greeks when they come laden with treasure', is an old adage that could be relevant here.

Graffiti talk
David Stewart, Greg Brownless, Mike Baker, Bill Grainger and I attended a restorative justice meeting with three admitted graffiti offenders. We were there to speak to these offenders as ratepayer's representatives. Whilst maintaining decorum we spoke bluntly on your behalf.
The offenders didn't like the process and said they were quitting graffiti. I'd like to think they were genuine but in this day-and-age it seems to get out of trouble, they will do and say whatever it takes to escape. I hope not. One was on 22 charges and reparation of $6160 (the cost of cleaning up the mess) was being sought. Another was 16 years old and unemployed. I'll leave you to figure out.
Police did a good job catching these crims and are taking graffiti seriously as the first step off the cliff in the fall to more serious offending. I asked why they did it and they said it was for recognition. Apparently they also put their 'mark” up on the internet site Facebook. Just like dogs marking their territory? Ratepayers are forking out around $400,000 to deal with graffiti and we are starting to make inroads but it will be a long haul to really get on top of it.

Unaffordable housing
At strategy and policy committee elected members considered housing affordability in Tauranga. We are listed as 'severely unaffordable” by a world rating agency. There are 41,750 residential houses, 30 per cent on less than 400m2 and 64 per cent of households have a household income of less than $70,000. Many have much less than that. So there is another problem, not discussed, of housing unaffordability for those who do own their own homes. Yet another committee has been formed to look at issues. But while demand exceeds supply and costs of sections and their services infrastructure continue to rise, the prospects of a solution for cheaper housing remains bleak.
Maybe a government leasehold scheme for land as happens in Australia with no land value content is a way forward for certain sectors.

Fronting up
As noted, the 2010 council election campaign is well underway for some, and there appears to be a new technique raising its head with letters to the editor, where those with political agendas write under someone else's name or have other people write for them. I understand the Bay Times are on to it too. Not that long ago letters to the editor in the Times were printed under ‘nom de plumes' and they eventually recognised the inherit unfairness of that where the writer's agenda was never evident.
Hopefully both papers will do their homework to ensure that the bona fides (credentials) of correspondents are genuine and are their own independent opinions not influenced by others.
Indoor Sport and Exhibition Centre tenders are under evaluation and an announcement of the successful tenderer will be made shortly – as expected tenders are competitive.