At the annual City Partners State of the City breakfast last week, Mayor Stuart Crosby once again raised the matter of amalgamation/takeover of local government councils in the Bay.

It's an old chestnut – talk of a unitary (single) council has been going on for years. A close scrutiny of the pros and cons might produce an unexpected outcome, especially if the existing Local Government Commission was involved.
We might end up with 130 community boards – just kidding.
I'm aware that urban and rural communities of interest differences are wide and varied.
Debt per capita between Western Bay and Tauranga city is similar. We know from experience, both local and national, that promised savings in staffing and administrative infrastructure in amalgamations rarely eventuate. In fact, usually the empire expands.
A mix of urban and rural elected representatives, who would have to ‘represent the entire area' according to the warrant they sign when elected, could produce confusion. Imagine a ‘Super City' comprising Waihi Beach, Katikati, Omokoroa, Te Puna, Tauranga, Te Puke, Maketu and Pukehina and tell me about commonality and mutual benefit.

The obvious fix
Where big gains can and should be made is with the abolition of the regional council, Environment BOP. The fact is it didn't exist, other than as a catchment commission dealing with flooding in the Whakatane area prior to October 1989, and this is evidence enough that its existence is superfluous.
At the time of their creation in 1989 I said that they would become like a stampeding elephant trampling all over people and to some degree that's been demonstrated in my opinion. Using Port of Tauranga profits to subsidise/hide the EBOP real rate-take is insidious at best, devious at worst. EBOP's environmental function can and should be absorbed by the city and Western Bay councils, their properties divested, and port profits put wholly back into Bay infrastructure. After all the port's spectacular growth is inextricably intertwined with infrastructure growth requirement. Existing democratic function of city and Western Bay elected members mean no extra democracy costs. At present, some EBOP elected members get to be on the board of the Port and Quayside Holdings by virtue of the fact they are elected members and not because of any special talents. And they get paid well for this in addition to their elected member stipend. This is what discussion should focus on together with meaningful dialogue with central government to rationalise how councils are funded, administered and function. Nice flowery words, talkfests and empire building and/or protection won't save ordinary garden variety ratepayers from rating unsustainability, demand for services and infrastructure – and the rapidly increasing gap between the two. Local Government Minister Rodney Hide alluded to abolishing regional councils when he got the job, but has gone quiet on it. Maybe this speech will bring it to the surface again. After this speech, there didn't seem to be much support or enthusiasm from most elected members from any of the councils to pursue this.

What are they worth?
Sun Media forwarded me a correction from city hall's communication department correcting an item from this column where I wrote that the library had five staff paid over $100,000.
They said it was only three staff. I stand corrected and great to know they scrutinise the column regularly. I thought you might be interested in current pay rates at city hall.
(See graph below).
Last published CEO salary was $400,000. CEO pay is set with professional advice by council and he is council's only employee. Pay rates for all other staff are the domain of the CEO and are not linked to CEO pay in any way. Other than Kiwisaver, all pay is gross rate with no perks such as company cars.

Keeping on track
At transportation taskforce committee we had a presentation from Environment BOP councillor Andrew von Dadelszen on the bus service. It costs $12.98 million of which 70 per cent ($9million) is for Tauranga.
They carry over a million passengers at a cost of $5.67 per passenger average, with the passenger paying $1.43 on average – a 75 per cent subsidy. Government/taxpayers who fund most of the subsidy want a 50 per cent subsidy and EBOP's subsidy target is 30 per cent.
We heard that NZ Transport Agency (The Agency) is urgently reviewing the shambles at Girven Road roundabout, lights or grade separation (road over and under) are options. More traffic lights – oh joy.
Bethlehem roundabout is underway, costing $2.3 million, not including land purchase. A lengthy monitoring committee meeting received six months reports from council's service providers like Sport BOP, Priority One and Creative Tauranga. Creative Tauranga's Tracey Ruddick told the committee there had been ‘huge leaps forward' in their relationship with the art gallery in the past few months. About time in my view and Tauranga artists are now allowed to exhibit in the art gallery she said.
The city's representation on the joint road safety committee was called into question and will be addressed at the next full council meeting on March 16. The current representative member is Hayden Evans. Hayden brought his personal business out of the confidential section where the matter of the water main pipeline easement through his property had been settled confidentially. (We weren't told the settlement amount). It also says Hayden had been invited to submit a tender for engineering supervision of the job but no tender application was received from him.
Hayden claimed staff had failed to advise him, but CEO Stephen Town said he was 100 per cent positive that Hayden had been advised and that Hayden had acknowledged that to staff. This long drawn out saga is now at an end, we are told.