An example of why local government reform is needed
March 28th, 2012 at 12:00 pm by David FarrarA reader has pointed out to me this example of why local government needs to be reined in. The Horowhenua District Council said:
The seats are in, wallpaper up, kitchen equipped and Levin’s new Focal Point cinema is on track for the opening on 4 November 2010.
The former Cinema 3 building has been completely refurbished in a joint venture between Horowhenua District Council and Focal Point Cinema of Feilding to bring movies back to Levin. Cinema 3 closed in March 2010.
So the HDC thinks it role is to subsidise a movie theatre. I understand the cost may have been as much as $500,000. Then look at this notice:
The Precautionary Boil Water Notice is still in place for Shannon and Tokomaru.
This means that the Horowhenua District Council advises boiling cooking and drinking water before use.
This is because Shannon has no treatment plant and the source water is contaminated. the HDC should be spending money on making sure its residents have safe drinkable water, rather than investing in movie theatres.
This is why the proposed new focus on infrastructure and public services is needed.
Related posts:
- Why we need local government reform
- Rodney on right track for local government
- The need for local body reform
- The 2013 Local Government League Table
March 28th, 2012 at 12:20 pm
David you are correct. Local councils should not be involved in entertaining its residents.
Vote:This also applies to the Government. There is no need to have TV1,TV2, Radio NZ, Ministry of Arts and NZ on air etc.
March 28th, 2012 at 12:21 pm
If National wants to control more councils it should win more council elections. Just because it’s against your right-wing ideology to provide so-called non-essential services doesn’t mean regional voters don’t want them.
Safe drinking water seems more important to me than movies, but the idea that the people working on the cinema project were the same as the people who should be working on improving the water supply seems grossly simplistic.
Vote:March 28th, 2012 at 12:24 pm
AND. National have had FOUR years so far to fix something they raved on about TWO elections ago and have yet to get past the blather,blather, blather point. More interested in sucking up to the frigging yanks than concerning themselves over Kiwi’s.
Complete lack of focus and plan.
Vote:March 28th, 2012 at 12:38 pm
We should never underestimate the venal, power seeking & spendthrift nature of local bodies. Should this overdue review of their priorities come to pass it should remove the “power of general competence” conferred upon them by the Local Government Act 2002.
Tinkering around the edges of the rights of these clowns to spend ratepayers money like water is not enough. We will merely have unneeded cinemas AND over engineered water systems. Ten years of profligacy proves that the ability of Local Bodies to tailor their income to the wishlists of councillors & the executive needs to be reined in & soon.
Vote:March 28th, 2012 at 12:39 pm
These reforms are worthwhile but I have no confidence there is a properly thought out political strategy to implement them. Picking on a small but extreme example to make a general case will not wash with me.
Vote:March 28th, 2012 at 12:40 pm
Check out the palace the Horowhenua DC built itself along the main drag in Levin. A monument to self-importance.
Vote:March 28th, 2012 at 12:48 pm
@themorgan
“Safe drinking water seems more important to me than movies, but the idea that the people working on the cinema project were the same as the people who should be working on improving the water supply seems grossly simplistic.”
Not sure where you get the ‘same people’ idea from – I think the point is, the money used to renovate a movie theatre could (and should) have been used to improve the water supply.
Vote:March 28th, 2012 at 12:54 pm
The problem is not the Councillors who in general terms do not know what is going on behind their backs. Who designs the 10 year plans – not the Councillors. Having just read the new Tauranga one the wording is brilliantly disguised by clever people in Council.
Vote:It is the unelected employees, and their pressure groups, which have grown up over many years, who have the agenda.
The CEO, who is the only employer, changes ever 4 years or so, leaving the pressure groups in place to continue their role.
Another CEO joins at a vastly inflated new salary, and the next teirs of senior emplyees similarly look towards changing in their salaries, conditions and status. And so on throughout the teirs.
Try and get a middle range job with a local authority without knowing somebody already there.
Of course HR ??? advertise, as they have to, but the job is already jacked up within.
The quiet continuation of pressure grouping, like cancer, continue to grow at rate payers cost.
This spending is out of control, but I do not think that any legislation can now change it.
There are too may vested interests (and that’s not the Councillors – they can be changed).
March 28th, 2012 at 1:00 pm
Confront a Greenie (who will rave about access to water as a justice issue) about this situation, and they’ll become a mental-gymnist and local council apologist.
Paulus is right however, the plans are the killers.
Vote:March 28th, 2012 at 1:02 pm
Wellington City Council was involved in a similar theatre refurbishment that caused controversy at the time:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lord-of-the-rings/news/article.cfm?c_id=594&objectid=3536072.
Vote:March 28th, 2012 at 1:18 pm
Yeah their new palace as mikenmild aptly describes it was built 5-6 years ago at a cost of around $50 mill most of which was borrowed. Levin is full of old folk and poor folk – not exactly rich rate payers huh?
Vote:March 28th, 2012 at 1:30 pm
Not only subsidising cinema’s but skate parks, and prettifying the main street (in Shannon) & other useless projects. I guess their relative inaction on some infrastructure problems does keep our rates relatively low so the tradeoff is bearable. The reforms will be welcome in order to put a hold on Duffy’s empire building. Reminds me so much of the TV comedy “The Brittas Empire”.
Time for the govt. to also focus on regional councils whose aim to force sustainability down our throats has resulted in regional council rates increases of up to 200% here in the Manawatu/Wanga’s region since its billing break from local councils. Sustainability “initiatives” make up the lions share of that rort. Put those highway robbers in the gun
Vote:Nick….oops Gerry!March 28th, 2012 at 2:31 pm
@themorgan – I assume you are trolling or not a rates payer. In the real world $1 of rates spent on a movie theatre is $1 of rates that can’t be spent on drinking water treatment.
Vote:March 28th, 2012 at 2:37 pm
mm 12:40 – Absolutely right. That’s quite a building. Bet they have fresh drinking water.
Vote:March 28th, 2012 at 2:46 pm
Horowhenua seems to have caught Wellington Council’s psychopathology. More circuses!! And damn the plebs and their drinking water!
Vote:March 28th, 2012 at 3:06 pm
Although this seems a clear-cut case of Horowhenua DC getting its priorities wrong, I’m not sure that having the central government tell local authorities to stick to this or that is the answer. We have elections for councils every three years for a reason.
Vote:March 28th, 2012 at 3:36 pm
mikenmild
….”We have elections for councils every three years for a reason.”…..
Somehow the reasons have become obscure with the mists of time. As “Paulus” stated so well in his 12.54pm the real power has shifted to the executive. The simpletons who put themselves forward for election each three years are treated kindly while the bureaucrats put rings through their noses & give them a guided tour of the garden path.
The average ratepayer merely requires potable water, his crap removed, a footpath & rubbish collection & a couple of coins left in his pocket after he pays the rates. Only the government can restrict the big spenders of the local body pressure groups & the executive.
Vote:March 28th, 2012 at 5:04 pm
Local government elections are a joke. Extremely few people ever get /retain enough information to make rational choices about who they elect. Even amoung those who can actually be bothered voting the majority just block vote by party.
Vote:March 28th, 2012 at 5:13 pm
Sounds just like elections at the national level. Maybe we need the UN to tell the NZ government to stick to its knitting too.
Vote:March 28th, 2012 at 5:20 pm
Levin is not Shannon is not Tokomaru.
If Shannon and Tokomaru were receiving theaters ahead of clean water then there would be cause for disquiet. But that’s not the case.
Vote:March 28th, 2012 at 5:21 pm
National elections are better since you have a lot of media coverage and information to guide just two votes. Compare with local elections where you get a lot less information to make 20+ votes.
However, if central and local government had sane definitions of their legitimate role was then stuff like this wouldn’t happen.
Vote:March 28th, 2012 at 5:25 pm
Perhaps the reason for the apathy lies in the truth that it doesn’t matter who is elected to warm the councillors’ seats. Too much power has been usurped by overpaid executive officers.
Vote:March 28th, 2012 at 5:50 pm
Good point gump. Democracy in the Horowhenua probably works this way – most people live in Levin and would like a picture theatre there ahead of clean water in Shannon or Tokomaru.
Vote:March 28th, 2012 at 6:24 pm
Not only subsidising cinema’s but skate parks, and prettifying the main street (in Shannon) & other useless projects.
Why is landscaping the main street a “useless project”??
The movie theatre is one thing but removing public landscaping from council responsibility will result in a degrading of public open space that will most certainly affect communities in a very negative way.
Nothing causes a town to turn to shit when it looks like no one cares, councils absolutely need to maintain street landscaping and public parks as an essential activity.
Vote:March 28th, 2012 at 6:31 pm
gump, are ratepayers in Shannon paying for a theatre while having to boil their brinking water?
Vote:March 28th, 2012 at 7:11 pm
” Local councils should not be involved in entertaining it’s residents” . I’ve been to a few councils meetings and some are very entertaining, I do hope they do not cease this entertainment.
Vote:March 28th, 2012 at 8:10 pm
Planning has failed nearly everywhere its tried…top down control is BS. Get ride of councils and Leave it to the market with private property rights and user pays as the golden rules.
Vote:March 28th, 2012 at 8:32 pm
@mikey,
It beggars belief. Why they needed such an edifice is beyond me. I don’t think myself greater than others, but I look upon it and despair.
Vote:March 28th, 2012 at 9:01 pm
@Shunda. I’m not against street maintenance/landscaping per se but the fact we have all this main drag touch up here in Shannon, as a sop to the retailers who are finally pulling revenue, as opposed to piping the 2 ft deep x 3 ft wide storm water drain out the front of my property gets on my f’n goat! The bastards have had about 60 years of complaints about it from my grandfather who was the original owner to myself, as well as the neighbours.
The pricks just keep saying it might be in next years annual plan….doesn’t happen, won’t happen unless one of the kids down our street falls into it while it’s in flood and bloody drowns! If you’re not on the main drag in the Horo you’re just pissing in the wind. All for looks mate, nothing else.
Vote:March 28th, 2012 at 9:04 pm
Agree with your sentiments entirely DPF but what has been proposed will not change a thing.
Smith has been influenced by people such as the Mayor of Hastings and President of LGNZ, who appears to want to take over his province and circumvent democracy so that he can get his hands on all the provinces assets and spend more and more.
Legislation needs to be more prescriptive to guide local government and regional councils need to be retained and have their role specified as well.New proposals don’t appear to achieve this.
There is such a lack of understanding of local government in NZ, especially by politicians.
Vote:March 29th, 2012 at 6:47 am
Expenditure on things other than core essential services should be put to referendum of ratepayers.
Lower HUtt council is planning on building a new palace as well. They should use prefabs.
Vote:March 29th, 2012 at 7:21 am
As I understand it, the Hutt City Council is considering a major renovation of the civic building. The building is earthquake-prone, and needs about $20 million of work to bring it up to standard. This is likely to be done by about 2020. By that time, there may be progress on amalgamation, etc, so a final decision would be some way off.
Vote:March 29th, 2012 at 10:00 am
The movie theatre in Levin is a private business that received (I understand) in excess of $900,000 of ratepayers money. Absolute bullshit and a disgusting waste of money from an incompetent council who can’t supply a clean water supply for Levin or the surrounding towns.
Vote: