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

Another busy meeting week in the run-up to an early Easter – means the column deadline is early so I can't report on some meetings until next week. I finally received copies of invoices for the organisation review which I requested some five weeks ago. I asked for the major consultancy invoice copies. It's not a pretty picture. The two biggies are Morrison Low $300,299 and GHD $211,149. Total combined cost $664,546 of all consultants so far. A note on the bottom informs that this is only up to March 18 2013 and doesn't include legals or cost of redundancies. I'm unimpressed with how some of these invoices are made out and will be meeting with CEO Leigh Auton for explanation.

Talking about redundancy costs the Bay Times has run a story on redundancy costs over the past seven years. That's fine, in fact these figures are public information, but there's a fine line in intruding on people's private lives into personal business. I won't dignify their story but in the scheme of things where there are 500 or so staff and a $37 million salary bill, redundancies over time are inevitable. Staff turnover is around 14% apparently. As I have regularly noted the problem is that unfortunately some staff have left that Council didn't need to lose – and vice versa!

A workshop on Freedom Camping to loosen up restrictions on campervans and the like. Proposals are for 28 sites around town and 90 spaces on those sites. It will come up for your submission and consultation. An interesting situation around NZ arises from this Freedom of Camping Act. You can park your campervan or whatever (under 3.5 tonnes) in any legal park space and leave it there provided it has registration and WOF. But Council is proposing limiting this if you are 'being accommodated” in it. I can just see enforcement officers going around knocking on van doors to see if you are asleep there! But they could only do that if you have stayed overnight. So when is 'overnight”? Good luck on that one. In reality this Council only acts on complaint and the main problem are those small hire vans with bunks but no self-contained amenities.

A great upfront presentation on the Rena situation from consultants on behalf of Rena owners and insurers. Full credit to them for fronting up quickly after some of us had expressed concern about what was going on at the wreck site. We were told that it had cost around $300 million to date and was one of the world's most expensive wrecks. I was told they would leave a letter confirming that there was only two tonnes of oil left aboard. I had not included fuel consumption on the voyage from Napier in my previous column, some 60 tonnes. We were told that they may apply for a resource consent to leave the wreck on the reef because it would do more damage to the reef in the removal process. They said that fish were teeming around the reef and the ship would become part of the reef eco-system. The stern is now down at 65 metres and was a dangerous work site. They have only worked 50 per cent of days this year due to bad weather conditions and one stretch of 22 days in a row there was no work. Council will collate all information and report it in the monthly monitoring report. The last oil sheen was seen on February 9. They acknowledged it was an unsuitable tourist dive site but inevitably some will dive there and it was proposed to try and make it 'safe''. If it does stay there it will be the scene of diving accidents in my view. A good Easterly blow will move the wreck around and it will break up over the years. All in all, a most unhappy and unsatisfactory situation for the Bay of Plenty.

Elected members joined a resolution to employ security with great gusto to try and sort out 'anti-social” behaviour at the downtown bus stop. Some cretins seem to think they can do what they like. Well – they can't and in short order there will be security and volunteers (including Maori wardens who kindly offered their services and attended the meeting) to clean the behaviour up. We had amendments and more amendments with one attempt to amend an amendment. In the end the original resolution was amended beyond recognition and mover Tony Christiansen voted against it. From observations from the Council building – Mayor Stuart Crosby's office is one that overlooks the bus stop – it will be a short sharp action and behaviour will settle down. Despite some elected members concerns it is not envisaged that a long term security presence will be required.

A much amended Pilot Bay walkway proposal was presented to keep elected members up to date. It is in response to public comment. A final design decision is due April 8 subject to further input and suggestions. The decision to actually build a walkway was taken last year on a vote of 10-1 with Catherine Stewart being the only one not in support.

Six monthly report from Council's shared services company BOPLASS. This initiative is saving its nine members councils a lot of dollars we were told. For example TCC saved $1,102 million in contract savings last year. This has the potential in years to come to rationalise many council services giving measurable savings that amalgamations of councils could only dream of. It will take time, but for example if all member councils gradually change to the same computer systems there will be savings in bulk-buying. Unlike Auckland which is leaching millions in computer systems alone because some cities within the city had incompatible systems. We also learned from BOPLASS that more than one million dollars had been saved in 'reporgraphics.”. That's this week's buzzword – for printers and photocopiers.

In the confidential section there was a presentation from NZTA – 'The Agency” concerning their plans for Girven Rd – Te Maunga intersections. All will be made public shortly after persons who could be affected are informed. This project is up at the top of traffic jam spots in NZ apparently.

This week's mindbender from Liz Smith. You cannot build a reputation on what you intend to do!