Matt Cowley Tauranga City Councillor

Yes, money can buy happiness, but it depends how you spend it. Research shows buying yourself a coffee will not make you as happy as buying someone else a coffee. It's not the amount you spend on others, but the frequency of spending on others that makes your happier.

This is one of many popular Ted talks, which if you are not aware, is a global movement aimed at sharing local ideas with the rest of the world.

Next month Tauranga has its turn to share local innovation with the rest of the world. The event's theme is ‘great minds don't think alike'. You can see more about the event, plus more insightful videos, by visiting www.tedxtauranga.com.

In other news this week, we finalised the annual plan, which comes into effect on July 1. There were no further changes from what I outlined a few weeks back.

We also started to review our chief executive's performance targets for the next financial year. He is the only staff member that elected members employ.

We will ensure the chief executive's performance targets for the upcoming year reflect the new direction of this council.

Before the previous council left the building, they approved $1.3 million to upgrade council's information technology systems. The investment was long overdue in my opinion.

It was like we were defending our computer systems from intruders armed with missiles and tanks by using just bows, arrows and medieval pots of hot tar.

We've now armed our stellar computing staff with the basic tools, which are standard for businesses in today's technological age.

This investment is part of our journey to improve our 24/7 services to the community. It will help us to speed up application processes, such as resource and building consents. It will also mean you can be confident your confidential information remains so.

Last Friday we ran through how Council sets development contributions for new housing developments. It was very clear growth does not pay for growth; the ratepayer often picks up the tab for infrastructure that service new housing developments (such as roads, water, and reserves).

Ratepayers recently took on just more than $21 million of debt that was supposed to be funded by development contributions.

Even the city's developers have asked Council to lobby central government for alternative ways to fund infrastructure servicing new developments.

Feel free to email me your thoughts (matt.cowley@tauranga.govt.nz), call/text me on 027 6989 548, and follow me at www.facebook.com/a.younger.voice.