cashflow debt democracy ecocare fairness financial accountability public excluded rates sewage transparency watewater
WorkBoot Blogs » Curbing the Debt Addiction - Act 3 Scene 1 – Kill the Trust Agents
In 1597 Shakespeare famously wrote in Act 4 Scene II in King Henry VI "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers".
Recent debates in the Council chamber have time-warped back to that era.
It appears that dealing with bloggers, emailers and other such pesky types results in defence of the culture. As Shakespeare also noted in the same play "Small things make base men proud".
And so the Scene I of Act 3 of the play/reality that is Curbing the Debt Addiction was set.
Amongst my other follies I have been trying to engage Council on our being nicer to our constituents – well to be honest not that ambitious – just not so condescending.
Given we keep telling everyone through “press releases” that everything is hunky dory I thought of another tack - building trust with our ratepayers. If we could build trust, that could start us down the path to engagement sometime soon that might be a small start, especially as we will need the ratepayers trust if we are going to deal with our Debt Addiction.
Again the answer is not rocket science. Chris Brogan, author of the New York Times bestseller 'Trust Agents' puts it this way “The difference between PR and social media is that PR is about positioning, and social media is about becoming, being and improving.”
This is a hard sell in the halls of power that is the Kaipara District Council.
Ever up for yet another brick wall challenge (see the comment by Ralph Williams on my last blog) Workboot (well to be precise the MoonBoot Councillor) embarked on a new campaign.
Simply, putting aside the personal attacks on me (here) I have decided I am not going to put up with the Council that I am a Councillor of, attacking others in our internal communications and very frequent public excluded sessions.
My concern has been that if I went public on these issues my actions would be turned into yet another attack on me rather than dealing with the issues. Well that was tried anyway.
So on the 16th of August I wrote to the Mayor asking him to right a wrong done to a ratepayer that had inadvertently copied a private email to a Council officer (here). Inside the time-warped Council chambers this error by a ratepayer was treated not as a mistake but an opportunity to to have some private fun at the ratepayer's expense.
Subsequently on Wednesday the 24th at the last Council meeting in 'public excluded' yet another personal attack was launched on another ratepayer. On the 26th of August I again wrote to the Mayor (here).
The Mayor suggested I visit him for a chat (here). After reflecting on the possibilities of a free high tea on the 29th I declined and explained why (here)
I attended a workshop on the 31st hoping that these issues would finally be addressed. The Mayor had confirmed in his email that this would be the case.
However the issues were not on the agenda for the workshop and were not discussed. I regret to advise that there are no plans for any of the issues to be actioned.
Another applicant for THE JOB.
Go to: http://www.kaiparaconcerns.co.nz/
Posted by Legal Eagle, 02/09/2011 2:02pm (2 years ago)
Craig, regarding the quote "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely", try also
"It is said that power corrupts, but actually it's more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power". David Brin (1950 –
Have you considered that the CEO/Tiller and some others have been in power for yonks, and can find whatever funds are required to promote what they agree with, (even when unaffordable), and act to ostracise any dissenting Councillor (Rogan, Guest, now Larsen) yet cannot find the funds or make decisions to improve the accounting system so people can follow where the money has gone?
We do need a Statutory Manager, to check matters out, to remedy the Eco-care and other debacles, and to conduct a full enquiry, to determine responsibilities, or clear away suspicion. While this is actually a responsibility of present councillors, those under suspicion can hardly be expected to do this, but ‘new’ councillors should heed Sir James Baldwin’s quote “if you sleep with dogs, you get fleas”. You volunteered into positions of responsibility, and you therefore have an obligation to prove the legitamacy of around $35 million of cost over-runs on Eco-care, PDP, Consultants etc!
Posted by Concerned rate-prayer, 02/09/2011 9:11am (2 years ago)
Jonathan
Today I learnt that council is planning to build new toilets at Omamari costing $400000 . Must be some toilets
No wonder we are in the pooh
Posted by rex, 01/09/2011 6:07pm (2 years ago)
These continuing revelations are astonishing! Without being paranoid, this seems possibly more than incompetence, even on a grand scale. This has an odour of conspiracy about it....
Remember the quote "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely"
Tiller and Co have been way too comfortable for way too long. Time now for a change.
And finally ....
Article in Northern Advocate 31/08/11 Outlining the financial turd the Dargaville swimming pool is in. Despite Tiller and Co saying otherwise?
Ummm! I wonder who's telling porkies?
Posted by Craig, 01/09/2011 5:36pm (2 years ago)
Regarding the increase in debt timetime - certainly we should be able to get it, but as indicated in the independent financial experts reviews, including the one not released to Council until very recently, there is no proper financial reporting within Council.
Regarding the Ecocare debt, there does seem to have been a sudden increase from what was generally considered to be in the low $50 million range, to now over 60 million in just a couple of weeks, but overall debt not increasing. As the cookie jars are rearranged, is someone arbitrarily transferring debt to Ecocare so that can be ring-fenced and it is not then "true debt" for KDC?
I suggest we need a full inquiry into how our elected Councillors and employees (under the CEO) got us, as "owners" of KDC, into such a mess. Turn up a few stones and we might find examples that could lead to a reallocation of debt from us to employees, Councillors, insurance companies, consultants and others.
Posted by john 2, 01/09/2011 2:18pm (2 years ago)
Because they lack confidence, (meaning they are out of their depth), regarding skills and experience to provide the Governance role expected of them. However, some common sense is expected. After council leaders have ostracised Rogan, then Guest, and now working on Larsen over 3 successive Councils, with commonality of CEO, and Tiller throughout, one may wonder is Council being run by and for a minority, and duping the inexperienced councillors? Council appears less democratic than desirable, and possibly not operating in the best interests of rate-payers, and leads to question what is the real reason for the Mayor to be so defensive of openness and debate. Is their some corruption, or some agenda perhaps, or just the result of poorly lead, poorly informed, gutless majority of duped councillors? Do we need to combine prayer meetings with the recent rates deferrment suggestion?
Posted by Concerned rate-prayer, 01/09/2011 2:01pm (2 years ago)
Has any local historian kept a year by year record of councils increasing debt? Put together an annual time line showing the CEO's achievements and the various Mayors abilities to get us 80 million dollars in Debt
Posted by John, 01/09/2011 1:47pm (2 years ago)
Keep up the good work Jonathan, What I can't understand is this. If Captain Jack has resigned how come he still has his hand on the Tiller? Why has he not been chucked over the side and a new CEO been appointed there are plenty of competent managers available within the district.
Posted by Ted, 01/09/2011 1:42pm (2 years ago)
Will the depths of incompetence ever be realised? How can any of the Councillors tolerate this scandalous behaviour.
Posted by Angry Fairy Tern, 01/09/2011 1:34pm (2 years ago)
RSS feed for comments on this page | RSS feed for all comments