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

At the council's Projects and Monitoring committee we had Western Bay of Plenty Police area commander Inspector Clifford Paxton deliver a presentation.

Council receive regular updates on crime statistics as one method of letting the community know what part crime is playing in society. Inspector Paxton emphasised percentage spike increases didn't necessarily mean a crime wave, because of the relatively small actual numbers of crime. Put simply if crime increases from 10 to 12 that can be shown as two extra or a 20 per cent increase. Closing down one burglary ring can mean another one starts up. Police have been focussing on known offenders and taking preventative activities, including checking second-hand dealers, bail checks, check points and referrals to partner agencies. Hot spots for criminal activity are parts of Bayfair, Merivale and Gate Pa, ranging from anti-social behaviour to petty crime and disorder.
Other reports to the committee came from our Sister Cities activity contracts. Ratepayers contribute $5500 towards education outcomes. This translates into overseas students in Tauranga. Numbers from our Japan sister city, Hitachi, are down to 41. One reason for this is Hitachi's proximity to the broken nuclear plant at Fukishima. Export NZ (BOP) handles the balance of sister cities activities with ratepayer funding of $49,416. We were told efforts were now being made to coordinate sister city activity with other New Zealand cities with sister city connections. From my experience this is overdue and there should be closer links to government agencies so every export opportunity for New Zealand companies can be spread over as a wide a network as possible. Trade in Asian countries is very dependent on personal relationships, trust and integrity.
Sport BOP gave their six-monthly report. They coordinate all types of sport in our region and fill the gap from yesteryear, when volunteers were available to organise sport. It's all changed these days with a fall in volunteers, increase in numbers of sports and numbers participating. Sport BOP organise coaching in some sports and help in all manner of administration matters. Ratepayers contribute $289,308 towards its costs.
At council's Strategy and Policy committee elected members adopted the Mobile Shops policy. Contentious issues are how vendors operate at the Mount during Christmas holidays. With 12 carpark spaces tendered along Marine Parade, the policy states no one vendor will be allowed to take all spaces. There's a lot more rules around mobile vendors as council attempts to find the balance between public right to services and retailers, who provide those services year-round, taking the good with the bad.
Election meetings are underway and the usual pattern from previous elections is emerging. Some meetings are being well run, one or two appalling; and the balance in between is like past experiences. Discounting interested parties and candidates attendance has not been high. Some of the hoary chestnuts get trotted out in an attempt to find a point of difference. For example, the urban myth of 'secret meetings”. Attendance at council meetings or perusal of the minutes, shows little is done 'in secret”. Usually, its individuals' or private business, or council's legal advice that is the subject of 'public excluded”, as it is more appropriately called.

Debt another matter
The other matter is debt. Council has few options to fund our city. Rates, development contributions, user fees, government subsidies (mainly roading) and borrowing are the options. Tauranga's borrowings are misunderstood by some and misrepresented by others. At June 30, rates revenue funded debt was $230.1 million. That's the bit you pay out of your general rate and is 46.6 per cent of total debt. Council has cash it lends to itself – just like modern day banking practise of deducting your savings from your mortgage – and including this makes net external debt of $378.9 million. This includes Route K debt of $61.1 million and development contribution loans
of $61.8 million, which are not ratepayer-funded. To put things in perspective the debt situation is a very reasonable option to fund the growing city – the other option is to increase annual rates significantly. I'm the first to agree some of this debt was created on nice-to-haves rather than core infrastructure; and some of us (a minority) didn't support some of this expenditure. But in the last three years there's been a focus and concentration on core infrastructure like stormwater; with nice-to-haves being shirted out of the 10-year plan. Put plainly council's priorities are now focused on what councils should be doing first – basic infrastructure.
So debt is not all bad, but as I've noted many times, it's up there and we need to continue to carefully manage and monitor it. Our CEO Garry Poole is a long-experienced accountant, and finances are his speciality in assisting elected members. Borrowings also ensure those who will benefit in the future will share the cost burden.
Full council on Monday sees a very busy agenda. Marine Parade residents have asked to speak in the public forum in another attempt to sway council into banning certificated motor homes from staying overnight along their road. A Route K transfer to NZTA is also likely, subject to agreement from elected members, to transfer to state highway status (potentially July 1, 2014). Tolls will continue, NZTA will maintain the road, an electronic toll collection will match the Eastern Link system and NZTA will underwrite the financial risk for outstanding Route K debt from a date to be agreed for, 35 years from that date. We're not out of the woods on this one yet, but this seems a positive leap forward in my opinion. The devil is always in the detail.
With voting papers going out next week this will be my last column for this triennium. If I get re-elected my column will resume mid-October. Thank you for your feedback, support and encouragement.

This week's mindbender from Alfred Lord Tennyson – 'knowledge comes but wisdom lingers”.