Tauranga City Council CCO's City Venues (TCVL) and Aquatics (TCAL) should not be amalgamated into a mish mash conglomerate. They need to be taken back directly into the Council fold. Council staff say the assets are worth $150 million (but who to?) and with staff of 150 at TCAL and 50 at TCVL, they clearly rival the overstaffing levels at Council.
Totally inappropriate commercial directors' fees beckon, yet performances to date show incumbents are not up to speed or that these lemons were always planned to fail ventures. $32,000 a director, $60,000 for a Chairman is insane and I for one don't want these non-accountable souls administrating my ‘assets' even if they are of a wasting nature.
Who on earth is doing a good job, when the CCO's that were not supposed to cost ratepayers any money, now cost a small fortune, probably around at $12 million per annum to run. All the talk of independence makes the eyes water surely, dependency on TCC ratepayer's funding is a far better description.
The call for further funding straight after the $35 million 2012 TCVL bailout in cash and future shares to make the CCO's commercially viable is outrageous, TCC ratepayers won't benefit.
Both CCO's are losers and always will be but the trick is to stop them haemorrhaging and draining TCC ratepayers' coffers. Simply increasing bureaucracy, directors fees and administration costs isn't the way forward. Everyone associated (including Councillors) with these fiascos should resign then install people who know how to run commercial ventures. They may never turn a profit as promised by Mayor Crosby but the excessive financial bleeding might stop.

S. Paterson, Arataki.