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

We read in the papers last Saturday that Western Bay of Plenty District Council is not just a ship without a rudder. A better comparison would be with the Titanic.

Council has hit an iceberg of rates, is drowning in debt and is assembling a band that is preparing to play Nearer My God to Thee. The only difference is they can't seem to agree on the key to get started.

The debt problem was easy to solve. They just increased the General Rate part of the rates by 48 per cent, attacked their debt with a new charge for everybody called an Interest Recovery Rate and put the District Library Charge up by 60 per cent. The restructuring alternative, already under way by other councils, appears to be beyond them.

The fight over the lifeboats seems to be just as brutal, with a recent report indicating a representation change that will mean reducing the number of councillors from 12 to eight and increasing the pay of the remaining by 50 per cent.

The confusion of the last week in the meetings on representation wasn't helped by a captain who was absent when needed, a second in charge who couldn't control the rabble, and decisions that have revealed major design problems with the ship which have opened the council up to the icy waters of public derision

They may get off lightly because, to add to the confusion for the public, the decisions on the Long Term Plan are due out this week and the new rates are confirmed. Beware of average figures being offered for rates increases. Rural rates have dropped in many cases but some urban rates have gone up by as much as 15 per cent in a year. A new Interest Recovery Rate has been added to help pay for their mistakes. The mayor admitted, during the recent Long Term Plan meeting in Katikati, that the projected rate increases in the plan were not acceptable and would need more work. If his policy is to drive the superannuitants out of the Bay, he is right on target. If ever we needed to be involved in having our eye on our council, it is this week.

The mayor was absent from the representation meeting that was chaired by the deputy mayor. After weeks of discussion and guidance from SmartGrowth, and after a secret workshop decision where a new representation structure was decided, the councillors broke ranks and decided on a totally different plan.

Cr Pittar saw the original plan that seemed to work well for towns like Te Puke and Katikati being thrown over the side. The mayor returned from a meeting with Maori and stated that if he had been at the meeting, he would have used his vote to stop the revolt from the steerage. Cr Webber drove the ‘eight councillor, three ward' plan but noted that councillors and community boards would have to go into training to learn their new role of representing the community. This could be even more onerous with two or even three community boards per ward. Fears have now been voiced over the difficulties that WBOPDC will have with the new plan and with any amalgamation they might have with Tauranga City Council or the option that was reported by the mayor in the NZ Farmers Weekly that councils might be amalgamating with Thames Coromandel District Council.

We can only gaze in wonder and consider the evidence that will come up in the inevitable local government investigation and the questions that relate to orders which obviously have been ignored.

The mayor has just discovered the requirements of this ‘new' Local Government Act and is disturbed that there was no consultation. He is complaining over the haste for restructuring that has to be completed by 2013. He has been told at various times since 2010 that local authorities should undertake preliminary consultation prior to commencing the formal statutory representation review process. Forms of consultation used by local authorities include community surveys or referenda, discussion documents, newspaper advertising, focus groups, email groups of interested citizens, public workshops and meetings in preliminary consultation to seek views on particular representation options, as well as on factors such as current communities of interest. WBOPDC and Omokoroa until now have totally ignored every one of these directions. Their confusion is of their own making.

The council's new draft representation model is described in the submission form on half an A4 page. It provides details of their impulse decision on the new council structure and asks you, with no information, to design something better. Council went off course in Omokoroa. It is foundering because of Omokoroa and, as of this week, Omokoroa and Kaimai are pushing to be first to the lifeboats. The mayor appears to be trying to attach himself to three different lifeboats but unless he can push the required three year schedule of change through in six months, he might be better off earning some nobility by going down with the ship.