Brian Anderson The Western Front www.sunlive.co.nz

Bitter attacks on councillor Norm Mayo dominated the first Katikati Community Board meeting on Wednesday night (February 9). These attacks were a continuation of attacks in the local paper, and on the night they revealed a dark underbelly in a group that is meant to be the town leaders.

In the vitriol, they publicly revealed evidence of a collapse in the Western Bay of Plenty District Council finances and attempts by the council to close ranks.

Norm's ‘crime' is in stating his long-held belief that council projects as they are presented are not financially possible, can break the council, and that council should be concentrating on projects that are affordable and achievable.
His current ‘crime' is that he moved a motion at a council meeting earlier in the day suggesting that the Katikati town centre plan be delayed because of the current recession, and that the modified plan being considered by the council included so many changes that it should be referred back to the public.
No-one was willing to second his motion to allow discussion and frenzied attacks on his integrity continued on into the community board meeting. No-one noticed that the budget overrun on the project had already been revealed in the paper that day.
Council did not care that town centre parking would be cut from 111 to 60 places, or that the Uretara stream area precious to the town would almost be completely filled with a residential development with no public reserve and minimal car parking.

In the almost hysterical outbursts, the community board publicly revealed that the council is so much in debt it cannot service its current loans. The attack on Norm revealed that the vote on the town plan had to be unanimous, something they quaintly called a necessary mandate.
No-one understood that a majority vote is a normal democratic process and because Norm didn't vote for their mandate he had to be a traitor. Again the attacks were personal and there was no discussion on the agenda item of the town plan at all.
The same tone continued throughout the evening and was not something the board could be proud of. Since the meeting, a recommendation that the number of councillors for Katikati should be reduced to one, and that Norm be removed, has been sent to council.

Two other items from the meeting further indicate the board's lack of understanding of their role in a democracy representing their community. Firstly the Mayor asked that the board write a bi-weekly column in the local paper. This was met with a telling silence which was eventually broken with an exasperated, ‘What would we write about?'
The topic was dropped, believing that the request would be difficult and that buying space in the newspaper would be too much for the board's budget.
Secondly, in the democracy part of the meeting, I asked if the board had submitted to any council plans on behalf of the community. I wanted to know because in last year's annual plan one of the board members had recommended a rate increase for Katikati to $3000. This year's annual plan is imminent and I believe he could push the same line this year. A significant rate increase this year will be inevitable to get the council out of its invidious financial straits. Without a hefty rate rise, the council will have to release a significant number of staff.

There is a common practice in council of blaming budget blowouts and mistakes on negative thinking councillors and community boards. The recent expensive Waihi Beach blunders and yesterday's budget blowout will probably be blamed on Norm. Watch this space.