The current hogwash from Ms. Hughes, TCC Communications Manager, is a sad reflection on a culture that unfortunately has been prevalent at TCC for the past decade. The fact is that TCC rarely responds in a timely manner to requests for information, is obtuse, obstructive, evasive and secretive because it seems to have an innate fear of any ‘investigation'.
The 700 hours complained of reflects the time Council spends in its efforts on how not to respond and to put roadblocks in place to stifle opposition. Requests for such things as copies of business cases and financial information that should take next to no time to provide, are made into a real meal which is an indictment of TCC, not those people legitimately requesting information. The result is that many LGOIMA requests end up with the Ombudsman in an effort to force TCC to comply with its obligations.
Put into perspective, the 700 hours TCC are whingeing about, if based on an average Council staffers' salary of $30 per hour comes out at $21,000 and at the top management rate of $50 per hour it is $35,000 which is peanuts having regard to the millions TCC wastes annually. Currently TCC have at least 500 staff employed at around $32 million annually including a Communications Section (or should that read miscommunication) with a $1.5 million budget. Scrap this propagandist outfit and save ratepayers $1.5 million then force the various Section heads to answer the questions themselves openly, promptly and truthfully without any interference from the Communications Section or the CEO.
While on the subject, the new CEO salary should also be cut back to around $250,000 adding to the overall savings. With all this in place then ratepayers might possibly get transparency and prompt responses. Sounds like an ideal outcome to those of us who are justifiably critical of Council performances.
R Paterson, Matapihi.