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The Minister has written a further letter to the Mayor which appeared in this month's official papers and can be downloaded from my website here. The letter details further important issues for ratepayers, and I would appreciate it if as many of you as possible could read it and give me your comments in the forum here
An anonymous complaint of an unknown unspecified nature has been lodged against me (see the letter to me from the CE here). I’ve asked for details of the complaint. There are serious matters on which I wish to ask questions of the auditors. I am advised that the auditors intend to be present at the presentation of the final financial accounts. I can’t see how we can act as an audit commit...
I have posted to the Council Performance Forum here. I am sorry to say but it appears we are headed for yet another round of negative news which may be spun again as terrific. I am doing my best to try to persuade my fellow Councillors that the spin is not only not working but making the Council look as though the Mayor's promises (recently given again to the Minister of Local Government and the M...
This website was started as a means for me to communicate with the community as a Kaipara District Councillor. After several months as a new Councillor, frustrated and concerned that there were only questions but few answers and little action, I started the blog as a way of testing out whether the community really cared. Your reaction to my blog told me that many many of you did and understood th...
Another of the bard’s lines made famous in everyday use. Well, for goodness sake, the amended Proposed District Plan has been issued with all the usual Council PR. The very, very, tight 30 day time-limit now applies for appeals. Given that most objectors gave their evidence 15 months or so ago and the amended Proposed District Plan is a huge document of 560 A3 pages, it is not surprising that I ...
Much has happened since my blog “Improbable Fiction”. First, the ratepayer meeting held in Mangawhai on Sunday the 25th. Despite a call by the CE, Jack McKerchar, for Council NOT to attend the Mayor and I attended. There is a brief report in the Kaipara Lifestyler here. I am waiting for a transcript of that meeting. Before commenting in depth, the Mayor's comments were so curious, that I decid...
Thank you for your many emails and phone calls. The Council meeting is on Wednesday. I will be posting again later in the week - no Shakespeare this time.
In my last blog I set out the work I was doing to understand the issues for KDC on its asset values. I was doing that work because none of the briefings Council was receiving, covered our obligations. Yet every day in the newspapers there were further judgments of the Courts reminding us that we had to understand the figures for ourselves. Needless to say, my efforts were not welcomed. The events ...
In my new passion for the great Bard and seeking inspiration, admittedly assisted by Google, I have drawn on Measure for Measure. In this play Shakespeare deals with power and corruption and the need for constancy for the truth to surface. The plot centres around the Duke Vincentio. The Duke has some unpopular tasks that need doing so, in order to remain popular himself, drags in the devious An...
Another workshop at Dargaville. Yes, THE super-secret workshop on the Proposed District Plan. Readers of this blog will know that much expense and great effort was gone to create the LARSEN Gag v2 – the Confidentiality Deed (for background click here) especially for this event. As Act 4 Scene 1 opened, the Proposed District Plan Workshop, the issue of the LARSEN Gag v2 – the Confidentia...