Waipā District Council revealed the size of a proposed rate increase last week. The News’ Mary Anne Gill, the only journalist who follows the council’s work, reflects on a process which enabled councillors to formulate their plans without her knowing.
Mary Anne Gill
As The News was rolling off the presses at 4.20pm on Tuesday, we got a huge surprise.
A Waipā council media release announced: “Proposed rates increase 14.8 percent due to increased costs.”
Earlier in the day I attended a full council meeting which lasted just 20 minutes. When I left, I was unaware that a public “workshop” discussion camouflaged under the heading “LTP Budget and Consultation Document” was about to confirm a rates figure – not that decisions are supposed to be made at workshops.
I have watched the recording of the workshop – all two hours and 37 minutes of it.
Councillors discussed and aired opinions on big projects – Te Ara Wai Land Wars Museum, a new Cambridge Library, changes which would make recycling “pay as you throw”, Cambridge Town Hall upgrades and demolishing the historic water tower outside Resthaven.
Cambridge Water Tower
They talked about cutting the funding to Hamilton and Waikato Tourism. Slashed, too, would be funds for community board and ward committee grants given to organisations across the district.
But $65,000 would be given to the council’s communications team for “online visitor promotional activity.”
In Waipā the $12.8 million provided to make street more cycle and pedestrian friendly has caused a lot of consternation – most recently, over plans to remove 32 carparks from centre of Cambridge. A public meeting called went ahead behind closed doors, but the Government decision to pull the rug from the initiative won’t have any impact here.
But in the wake of council’s decision to slash $150,000 in funding from Waipā’s two i-Sites, one councillor has still to receive an appropriate answer to a point of order he raised which questioned the impact of a late agenda change.
We are waiting too.
The council determined questions we asked should be considered under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act. It appears the council can wait until late January before giving us answers.
The council held another meeting recently to discuss the Ombudsman’s concerns about the use of workshops.
The thrust of the Ombudsman’s report was about openness.
