I refer to Letters to the Editor of the last few weeks, today in council I tabled two letters sent by the CEO to lawyer, Mr Paterson recently, the CEO has confirmed in writing that he has destroyed Official Council documents pertaining to Baypark, the letters are explicitly clear.
When given the opportunity for Council staff to respond to this, all remained silent (audio can be heard at the Council website; meetings dated 7 September 2010, Projects and Steering Group, and listen to the end of the recording).
Miss Hughes last week stated that Council has 'NOT” destroyed Baypark documents. But now we have a letter signed by the Council CEO Stephen Town that all Councillor's booklets are destroyed including the original templates, the evidence is irrefutable about what has been done.
Building Fees: I believe that Council has deliberately misinformed the public. I presented a copy of a Building Consent application, invoice (titled 'Building Consent”) and a receipt for $18,030. Mayor Crosby looked at the receipt and said 'that we were different to other Councils”. I pointed out that the average citizen is only interested in what he writes the cheque out for ! I have seen evidence from other Councils and the amounts in the advertisement are fairly and correctly reported, Tauranga is very high.
Miss Hughes, Council Communications Manager, stated in writing over the past few weeks that the figures quoted by myself and by 'Tauranga City Finances Out of Control ?” are incorrect, there is no doubt that the Building Fees of $18,030 must be paid to be able to build, Miss Hughes saying '$3500-4000” is not correct !
Council conduct here is not acceptable, When I investigate at Council, they try ANY stunt to obstruct me in some way.
Part of that is BOP Times as a member of City Partner Program who pay in $61,000 pa (2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010) I believe they potentially do not maintain an ‘at arm's length' relationship, this has the potential to cause a 'conflict of interest” and so potentially not review and report Council activities objectively.
Cr Hayden Evans, Ohauiti.

TCC response:
To clarify, each individual document that was compiled into a booklet for elected members on the day of the Council meeting in 2007 is held safely by the Council. All of the booklets were destroyed and the original documents were placed back into a master file of documents relating to the Baypark acquisition. Cr Evans, after nearly 3 years in office, is yet to find the time to read this master file.
Elizabeth Hughes, TCC.