Mayor, CEO front up to questions from Grey Power

March 17th, 2011
[by David Armstrong]

The Tasman District Council Mayor Richard Kempthorne and CEO Paul Wylie met with Motueka people yesterday to answer questions and hear suggestions as to the Council's performance and how it could perhaps better address ratepayer needs.

The meeting at the Community House, hosted by Grey Power Motueka, attracted 20 people - a rather disappointing number given that the idea of such a meeting arose from a sometimes emotional 'Meet the Candidates' meeting last September, when many in a larger audience strongly challenged and argued with the mayor and councillors over several issues. (See our report here.)

Meeting chair Valerie Rae opened the meeting with a request for the audience to "keep emotions in check" when asking questions or putting opinions, and this was generally followed as Paul and Richard were allowed to answer questions fully to a good-natured audience.

Paul Wylie started out by commenting on submissions that had recently been made by Motuekans to Council, including the cost and need for water reticulation and river stopbank improvement, targeted rates, the state of footpaths, and the district-wide planning and allocation of funds which some feel works against Motueka.

Richard spent some time going through some of the major issues arising from changes to Council's 10-year plan and the resulting (or accompanying) increase in rates. He explained how the Golden Bay and Murchison floods late in December had cost the Council (after subsidies) $1.6 million, which had exhausted its emergency fund. That fund will be rebuilt over two years through a special extra in rate.

He also pointed out that because of the tight income situation and extensive revision of planned rates by Council managers, some maintenance and protection activities will not receive any increase this year, meaning that some of roading and river improvement programmes and other projects will be deferred for a year. The alternative, he said, would have been a higher increase in rates, which would not have been at all popular.

Projects to be deferred include the Gibbs Valley Road seal extension (although the savings here will be diverted to improvements to Turner's Bluff on the Kaiteriteri Road) and funding for the Motueka Swimming Pool for two more years (although design work will continue).

Question time produced some interesting questions, mostly around Council performance and costs. Several people were concerned about the continued cost of larger Council premises and staff in Richmond. Both speakers addressed by saying, in summary, that ratepayers are getting good value for money for the services that we all need and which someone has to pay for. It costs money to get staff with the skills required to get the job done, and Tasman's staff overheads are among the lowest in the country.

They said Council does have productivity measures in place which they are continually fine-tuning, and in order to provide the services that ratepayers expect there needs to be staff to do the work and the space for them to work efficiently.

Paul Wylie, Valerie Ray and Richard Kempthorne

Regarding the perception that the Council's priorities seem to favour Richmond, Richard said that Council works very hard to balance the needs and services over the whole district. Sometimes one area receives money for a larger project but over time it all should balance out.

Asked why the Mayor should not also do the job of the CEO, thereby saving one large salary, the speakers said that there are quite different skills required for the two jobs. One job is governance, the other management, and each should stay out of the other. This is one price of democracy.

The only issue which raised the temperature of debate a little was of the noise and cramped space at the library, and especially the difficulty locals face in getting free internet access which is hogged by tourists. Richard said that, following the completion of successful library upgrades in Richmond and Takaka, Motueka is next in line and money is set aside for initial planning.

He agreed that the library is now "hopeless" and inadequate for our needs. He said the problem of free internet access being largely unavailable to residents over summer was due to the conditions associated with the contract with APNK which allowed free internet of any sort. "If we got rid of free internet use by outsiders, we would lose all free internet access full stop," he said. "None of us would get it. Restricting its use would mean we would all have to pay for its use."

He said the APNK network system was very much appreciated in Richmond and Takaka, whose users would not appreciate its removal, but the issue would be looked at again as part of the Motueka library upgrade.

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