What an indictment of the Tauranga City Council voting system, when only about one-third of those on the city's electoral roll actually voted.
While apathy and hopelessness are usually blamed for public disinterest in local body elections, in my view the main reason is more likely to be ignorance as a result of the quality of media reporting often leaving the public ill-informed to participate in any meaningful debate, because they are not even aware of what the issues are.
For democracy to work the public need to be educated and informed on any topic under consideration. Perhaps it is also worth bearing in mind 'it is hard to imagine a more stupid or dangerous way of making decisions in the hands of people [politicians] who pay no price for being wrong”, said Thomas Sewell.
Last, but not least, the Albert Einstein classic is also relevant here: 'Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”.
This is the reason Tauranga is drowning in debt.Let it be a warning to the successful new council candidates to take care and think about what they are doing, otherwise the electorate will treat them harshly in three years time too.
I challenge the TCC spindoctors to come up with a positive spin on the electoral result without being creative or playing smoke and mirror games.
In short, pick the bones out of the mayhem if you can. The last thing Tauranga needs is a minority mayor, who polled less than the top at-large candidates, exercising powers to give a greater ability to lead.

R Paterson, Matapihi.