Nominations have opened for council [elections] and may someone have mercy on the ratepayers.

If you are one of the minority who will vote you should consider not doing what can happen and that is throwing out those who you consider dopey.

That's because you really don't know that those who replace them aren't even more dopey. At least some of those who are there know how the place works and should know how to actually represent you. And others make their greatest contribution when they're not at the meetings!

Elected members can't do the job effectively -that is balancing staff reports against ratepayers' ability to pay - unless you've served your apprenticeship and this is especially true of the mayoralty.

You absolutely have to have been a councillor. Two elections ago seven councillors got the biffo. Lots of hollow promises by those who didn't think they would get on replaced them. Kelvin Clout and others focused on what they promoted as excess city debt. They were going to fix that and "open the books". Well, the books are always open in local government and debt continued to spiral upwards significantly. That's not to pick on them. Just another illustration of the reality of Local Government and the madness of the silly season that is the democratic process.

Be careful what you wish for, you might get it and the more things change the worse it can get.

Bill Faulkner, Otumoetai