puff 430 Wheeler's Corner

Wheeler’s CornerÓ

Connecting Citizens Who Care



12 29th March 2007.

This Week: 1. General Manager Community & Commercial Services flees the coop: 2. Top Editorial: 3. All citizens are not equal: 4. Awapuni elects Shona Jarmin: 5. The Café episode two: 6. My God says:

Editorial:

Believe it or Not’ At the Hokowhitu Ward Election held on Thursday the 22nd March 2007 Cr. Gordon Cruden the aged doyen of council rules and regulations and an ex Hong Kong judge really proved how little he really knows about process. He attempted to nominate a person for the vacant position on the Ward Committee, he then attempted to vote for the process used and lastly attempted to vote! He had to have the rules read out to him by the committee Administrator! The rules are clear: Councillors of the Ward can not vote or take part during the election process. Later after the election the Councillor chairing [Cr. Naylor] the election made public the actual votes received by each nominee. He stated that the winner won by one vote from the second placed nominee while the third placed citizen received five votes. Nor did he call for nominations for scrutineers to count the votes cast. When questioned about this break from the usual process he stated that ‘staff’ had been arranged to carry out this activity. When citizens are prepared to put their names forward they deserve respect, good manners and correct process. It is simply bad form to tell those present the number of votes gained by each nominee. This is particularly important when the chairperson [Naylor] and Cr. Gordon Cruden both whom have made public their disregard for Ward Committees and the need for them to exist at all. Anyway big time property developer Paul Barras topped the poll by one vote and if approved by the tight eight will be confirmed as a member of the Hokowhitu Ward Committee. I bet you a dollar to a dime that neither dear old Gordon Cruden nor mayoral candidate Jono Naylor will oppose his conformation and that they will now suddenly value Ward Committees.

1. Clare Hadley is departing the council scene. Press release:

‘New Chief Executive for Rangitikei District Council. The Rangitikei District Council has carried out a professional process in appointing a new Chief Executive and wishes to announce that Clare Hadley was the successful candidate. Clare has worked in Local Government since 1988 in a variety of areas with many managerial roles and in particular with Palmerston North City Council since 2002.Clare is currently the General Manager Community and Commercial Services. This position has a large advocacy role for the Council on behalf of the community and Clare sees this as being one of her strong points and will follow on from the previous Rangitikei Chief Executive’s role. Clare will take up her position with the Rangitikei District Council on 18th of June 2007 and looks forward to ensuring the ongoing positive drive forward that initiatives have given the District over recent years. For more information, contact Bob Buchanan, Mayor, 06 327 0099. It would seem that when a CEO departs those who were rapidly promoted under his regime depart with him, not only is Clare Hadley departing but one other senior manager tried for a CEOs job at a nearby council but was unsuccessful. My interpretation of Clare Hadley’s successes in the community area sure doesn’t line up with the Rangitikei Mayor’s.

This was published in the Manawatu Standard on Saturday and proves for me the huge about turn of our local paper since the arrival of its new editor Paul Taggart. I hope that all citizens will feel more relaxed about using the opinion page of our local paper to express their views in the future.

2. A breath of fresh air’

There appears to be a new mood in city hall. With the departure of CEO Paul Wylie from our province, smiles are more evident in Palmerston North's corridors of power and, hopefully, the malicious emails being flicked about the city to staff, councillors and members of the wider community will have stopped, writes the Manawatu Standard in an editorial. Mr. Wylie may have had skills which were exhibited behind closed doors at the council offices, but a local body has to listen to its community and tell them what it's up to if it wants to have the confidence of the people.

Being kept in the dark may be good for mushrooms, but not the people of this great city. And it seems odd that the council, under the former regime, should want to hide its light under a bushel, only releasing information grudgingly, sometimes after receiving official requests under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act.

What has it got to hide? There are a number of major projects bubbling away at present, from the Manawatu Active Transport Strategy that my colleague Ewan Sargent editorialized about in yesterday's Standard. To the plan for a new bridge across the Manawatu River and a ring-road project, which would be a big help in enabling the city to grow as a regional hub.

The five years that Mr. Wylie was with the city was but the blink of an eye in the council's history: for example, the ring road project may take 20 years to complete.

This week things seem refreshingly open in the battleship-building, with acting chief executive Ray Swadel happy to talk about council projects and share a pot of coffee with journalists who, in the past, had been treated with unnecessary and excessive suspicion.

An engineer by trade, Mr. Swadel has 20 years' knowledge of the city and its infrastructure, and has the respect of councillors and staff. A recruitment consultant is currently advertising the position with a view to finding a permanent CEO, but until that process has run its course, the city appears to be in a safe pair of hands’.

3. A Council Committee has decided that all citizens are not equal, well when it comes to allocating council housing. Regardless of the overwhelming evidence that the community believes that housing those with most need is and should be the prime factor in allocating housing the committee opted for putting citizens into differing classes. For years the system has functioned so well that few, if any complaints have been made about the allocations. In fact council couldn’t even state how many applicants have been rejected and why they were rejected. The new strategy is being introduced simply to bring it into line for financial reasons rather than its’ real effect on those citizens in need. This whole exercise lines up with the council’s desire to reconstruct the community aspects of its operation. Community development is an example, which was restructured downward, social housing is undergoing the same fate. The main driver for the change has not been the citizen’s or the occupiers’ of the housing but the autocrat’s who operate the system. Their leader Clare Hadley led the charge to alter the ‘Community Development’ policy and now as probably her last act before departing the scene recommends these changes to a compliant council. No that’s not true for four voted against the changes: Cr. Kelly, Claridge and Etheridge along with the Mayor. But Cr. Craig, Hornblow, Podd, Ian Cruden and Broad along with the Acting Chairperson Dennison voted for the change. So now people with disabilities or special needs will have a huge hurdle to climb to be able to share equably in the one source of housing that was truly open to all our citizens. The legacy left behind in the community relations’ field is not a note worthy one. This one in particular may well come back to bite councillors’ bums. We shall see in the not too distant future.

4. A majority at a huge Awapuni Ward Committee meeting preferred Shona Jarmin over one other candidate [Ken Baird] it was obvious that Awapuni Citizens were ready to replace guess who…and a fine replacement if I may say so. Unlike the Hokowhitu Ward election the councillors present understood the rules and never tried to vote and the scrutineers [2] were selected from the floor. The meeting then discussed the council plans to prepare for sale the land on the corner of Park Road and Fitzherbert Avenue. Cr. Peter Claridge and Cr. Pat Kelly explained what had happened and that councillors didn’t know that council staff has asked Steve Mahare to introduce a bill to change the status of the land. Various Citizens spoke about the land and what it could be used for rather than selling off. Later during questioning Cr. Broad came under great pressure for his voting on the issue. I must admit that I find Cr. Broads’ voting patterns are most confusing for example he voted with the tight eight [As he almost always does] regarding the new housing strategy and he has many times voted against Awapuni Ward Committee representations advice. As I understand it he is a member of the Labour Party. This behaviour makes it difficult for the Ward Committee to push the wishes of Awapuni Citizens to the Council. At the end of this stage of the meeting the meeting voted unanimously for the retention of the land under its present status.

5. Over heard at the Café. [Continues from last week].

How did your interview for CEO go?

‘Great, your reference was a huge help’

‘Have many applied?

‘Heaps, including that stirrer who writes ‘Wheeler’s Corner’

‘When do you expect to hear back’

‘Months rather than weeks, so lets go issue some tickets’…

6. My God is over the roof with Shona Jarmin’s election and wishes her all the best.

Peter J Wheeler

Wheeler@inspire.net.nz