I would have to agree with Thomas Brown re contact by councillors. I asked Cr Mike Baker a public question and he phoned me at home in a state of high excitement, rambled on then hung up on me.
This is a worry, not because Mike Baker has lost the plot, but because he obtained my ex directory phone number, I would hope not by abusing council privileges.
I would however have to disagree With Mr Brown on his attack on Mark Groos.
He claims Mr Groos got himself elected. Hullo, I think we elected him. I think that Mr Groos has done a good job as a trustee at tect, I believed he instigated a vote on whether or not people wanted all of the tect money or if they wanted the status quo ie a portion contributed to charity.
Mr Groos didn't come out in favour of either decision, but even though it seems to have been an unpopular thing to do, it was democratic and fair and I would applaud him for that.
If he is elected to council [which I personally hope he is] then we can expect the same openness and democratic approach, which has been missing for some time.
I would ask Mr Thomas a question. As he seems to be down on every one, who is is his choice for Mayor and why.
Healthy debate and questioning is really important, I believe the more we question prospective candidates the better. But lets do this in a straight forward honest way, by asking question through the media such as this excellent paper, which as far as I am concerned has always been fair and unbiased to all.
Chris Laycock, Tauranga.
[sitting in a pub in London and reading The Sun online, www.sunlive.co.nz]