Matt Cowley Tauranga City Councillor

On any given week, people approach Tauranga City Council with new ways we can do things better.

I'd hate to live in a city that relied solely on elected members for ideas to progress the city.

I want to encourage more people to suggest ways council can do things differently to get better outcomes for the city.

The now infamous proposal to put Waka Maori (aka the ‘plastic waka') on the waterfront was seen as a solution to bringing more people into the CBD.

Rightly or wrongly, those external people who proposed the idea stopped it once the results of the business case and associated risks were known.

Their desire to collect good quality information before presenting it to council to make a decision should be seen as a sign of the city maturing.

I'm pleased people are discussing other ways the $30,000 – used to carry out due diligence on Waka Maori (even if it's only partially ratepayer-funded) – could have been spent.

But I don't want the Waka Maori experience to put people off from suggesting their ideas to council.

Council must innovate to progress the city within our budget constraints. So I welcome your suggestions for how we can be more innovative.

It's natural to feel annoyed $30,000 was spent without something being delivered – similar to buying a building inspection report but you don't end up buying the house.

Council should be more careful before funding due diligence of people's ideas.

But the city would go into a negative downward spiral if the city creates an environment where people are too scared to present their ideas for fear of public retribution.

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.