ED SAID Councillors out, Commissioners in!

One problem that emanates from the replacement of the council with commissioners is that many of the, let’s say, ‘anti-council’ brigade, are basically pleased to be rid of the council but have little or no suggestion of what should replace it or, in fact, what they are actually working towards given that there is still that $80 million debt to deal with.

The buzz word for some time has been ‘illegal’, also closely aligned with ‘possibly’ illegal and ‘probably’ illegal. Setting of the rates – illegal, acceptance of the LTP – illegal, handling of the wastewater scheme – illegal, and so on. 

Several opinions agree. Said opinions may well be those of knowledgable professional learned people and based on information they have been fed, read or deduced for themselves. However they are still only opinions until such time as charges are laid and those charges are proven in court. This is the democratic process. 

When or even if this will happen is a moot point. It appears that there were anomalies right from the time the original contract for the WWS was negotiated and instigated even regarding the terms, let alone the supervision and execution of the works. Therefore, surely every member of the past, probably, four councils is culpable in some way or another having all dealt with and required to pass one aspect or other of the scheme. 

But let’s look towards the commissioners. There are some who say they are prepared to work with the commissioners towards righting the good ship Kaipara providing things are done a certain way. Personally I think the days of putting any proviso’s on the commissioners are long gone. I believe the ratepayers, to a large degree, have had their say and have endorsed their stance in no uncertain terms but unless I am mistaken, the commissioners are to deal directly with the matter in hand i.e handling the debt and keeping Kaipara operational. Appointing commissioners removes any empathy for the people of Kaipara making the issue a straight-forward business one.

Even though they have been allocated a three year term to get things sorted, I’m not certain commissioners are  necessarily expected to delve into past council activities, but only come up with a solution towards dealing with the debt present and future. Though one member has local (Dargaville) business interests he too will need to put any empathy aside and remain completely impartial and focussed on matters at hand.

One thing seems certain, we all agree this is a very complex matter and there will be no quick or painless fix. It’s a simple problem of money and one which besets all of us personally or in business at some time through our lives. It’s not, however, such a simple solution.

Ratepayers may consider the battle has been won but certainly the war has not – but then, are wars ever really won?

Cheers,

Rob and the team