Cr Bill Faulkner Faulkners Corner www.sunlive.co.nz

Council's major task, starting next week, is to put together another 10 year plan, which in reality is only relevant for the next three years.

But legislation from central government decrees 10 years. So 10 years it is. With ongoing despair it is worthy to note that this is yet another requirement that the Wellington politicians don't impose upon themselves. So the last 10 year plan was realistically a three year plan with the subsequent seven years a wish/hope list. It would be a reasonable assumption that the next three years are going to follow the pattern with the period 2014-2021 another wish/hope list. Even outgoing Local Government Minister Rodney Hide acknowledged at the start of his tenure three years ago that it was impossible to plan a council budget 10 years out and he intended changing that. He didn't and now he's on his way out. It's likely a cunning plan for the current government to have a fall-guy for the looming disasters likely to arise from the Auckland Super City project. Solving one lot of problems and creating other problems seems to be the consequence of this experiment.

Moving forward in retreat
Council had a very productive day-long retreat with the new chief executive Ken Paterson and acting chief executive Christine Jones during which elected members conveyed their desires for effective restraint in management of council services and resources. There is no call for major alteration of levels of service at this time, but that may have to come if council is to constrain the demands of the big money munching machine.

This recognises that the rating system, as we know it, is unsustainable into the future. Ken Paterson certainly has a long list of elected member's thoughts, suggestions and wishes to go on with as he makes his own management plans to put into effect council's annual plan for this year, which he had no part in.

Putting down the let down
As noted in previous columns there needs to be change in some aspects of council's operating culture. As an example, some weeks ago I wrote of an attitude to service in some departments that reeked of monopoly-type service. You know how it is sometimes when there is no competition. On this occasion I met with the complainant and the group manager, who agreed there was a problem, and agreement was reached on a solution. This matter is the complainant's private business, but it is not an insignificant transaction so it was with great disappointment that I received a call just three weeks later from the same complainant to inform me that he had just experienced a variation of the same lack of service. I'm not sure if it was a deliberate, negligent, incompetent or disinterested action, but if similar treatment was meted out to a customer in the private sector, two things (at least) would happen. One, heads would roll, and two, the competition would get the business and this one would go broke. It's a message that is hard to get through to some down at city hall and it will be interesting to see how quickly, and if, the new CEO can deal to this sort of nonsense. The days of pandering to elected member requests with a ‘yes councillor, no councillor, three bags full councillor' should be long gone.

To be fair, things had been improving, albeit slowly, but I felt bitterly let down over this incident.

I note that Steve Crows B on B is still getting great (and free) publicity. It will be interesting to see (no pun intended) if he plays the game and fills in a council application for a parade. My bet is he won't! Also what the police will do about it if he proceeds to just drive through town and most interestingly who and how many will turn out to watch. As I've said before, this sort of thing is best ignored – but hope is a fine thing.

Hot pools: the buck stops here
I had another inspection of the now torn up surrounds of the Mount Hot Pools. At that time the source of the leak was still unclear.
Repairs are underway, but it looks like an awful lot of work to do to reopen mid September.

The future of the ‘proposed redevelopment' is still very much up in the air and I wouldn't be betting on any outcome at present. Reportedly mediation over the resource consent has (unsurprisingly) failed. With battle lines drawn by the parties being so entrenched it was unlikely that compromise would be agreed.

Until some real hard facts are established, and they have yet to be from where I sit, then all that is being bandied around in the media is rhetoric, rumour and speculation. Whether you are for, against of ambivalent to this project it would be inappropriate to reach any conclusion at this time of where council will go on this one given that ratepayers will be guaranteeing any loan monies and taking the rap of the outcome, whatever that might be. Notwithstanding that, the aquatic network is managed by the council CCO, Tauranga City Aquatics Ltd (TCAL), with the object of running the pools on a commercial basis with no political input. However, it is still the elected members that ratepayers will ultimately hold accountable – success or failure. TCAL figures up to the time of the Mount Hot (Saltwater) Pools closure showed that they are running a viable operation by comparison with other New Zealand council public pools networks. That's by comparison and still means an around $2 million ratepayer subsidy for the entire pools operation.

This week's mindbender – relevant perhaps to Council – 'The problem is that we have too many processes keeping people busy.”
– John Fletcher, then CEO of Coles Myer in Australia.