Cook retires
March 13th, 2013 at 7:16 am by David FarrarStuff reports:
Stephanie Cook has announced she will not stand again for the Wellington City Council in October.
Cr Cook, a veteran of local politics, has represented the Lambton ward for 18 years.
She is retiring to run a bed and breakfast on a lifestyle block in the Tararua Ranges.
First elected in 1995, she holds the social affairs portfolio under Mayor Celia Wade-Brown.
Under Mayor Kerry Prendergast, she was one of the leading opponents of the inner-city bypass project.
Aligned with the left of city politics, she was a member of the Greens until 1999 and then stood as a councillor for the Alliance.
Stephanie’s retirement opens up god good opportunities in Lambton Ward for aspiring Councillors. It is very difficult to beat incumbents as name recognition is very influential on voting behaviours – unless the incumbent is very unpopular. So having a retirement of an incumbent is the best opportunity for aspiring new Councilors.
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March 13th, 2013 at 7:21 am
“…god opportunities…” .Damn straight, its about time someone brought some light to those godless heathens!
Vote:March 13th, 2013 at 7:24 am
“First elected in 1995, she holds the social affairs portfolio under Mayor Celia Wade-Brown.”
A couple of points.
1. Why does a council have a social affairs person anyway?
2. Can Wade-Brown really call herself the Mayor when nobody actually voted for her to get the job?
Vote:March 13th, 2013 at 8:14 am
big bruv
1. Social affairs:
“This wide-ranging portfolio has a strong ‘cradle-to-grave’ community service and safety focus. It includes an overview of the Council’s approach to the provision of affordable rental housing. It also deals with issues like homelessness, alcohol and gambling policies. It concerns early-childhood centres – and the Council’s approach to senior citizens. It has an interest in crime prevention and city safety, public health, dog control – and burials, cremations and the operation of our cemeteries.”
- public health, dog control, cemeteries, alcohol and gambling policies – council is required by law to provide these services and related enforcement activities.
- housing – ideally WCC should not be in the business but is stuck with a historic landlord burden And it cops it every time a reclusive tenant dies and is not discovered for weeks – some of the tenants are marginal ‘mental’ cases and this forces a welfare function on those who manage this housing. IMO it should just ‘gift’ the housing to Housing NZ as state houses.
- early childhood and senior citizens – Councils should not be in that game.
Unfortunately the previous Labour government changed the law allowing councils to indulge in all sorts of extraneous things.
2. Re Mayor – She got a majority of votes – seems her opponent did not view her as a threat and did not mount a full re-election campaign. She should be dog tucker in October but may slip back in unless the centre-right can come up with a whizz-bang candidate.
Vote:March 13th, 2013 at 8:26 am
I hope Cr Cook has better luck than 1972 Democrat presidential nominee George McGovern. Of a solidly left-wing disposition, he left the senate in the 1980s to start running a bed & breakfast in Connecticut.It closed three years later, with McGovern blaming byzantine regulations (including local ordinances) for making life really hard for small business owners.
He actually wrote a letter to the Wall Street Journal where he said he wished he had that experience before, and not after, going in to politics. It’s a great letter – full text here:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203406404578070543545022704.html
Vote:March 13th, 2013 at 8:27 am
Bluntly put: that woman was and is useless.
Vote:March 13th, 2013 at 8:59 am
Cato: You cant read the the letter via the link you have put up without subscribing to the WSJ it seems…
Vote:March 13th, 2013 at 8:59 am
Manolo
This is your big opportunity to put your money where your mouth is. You could solicit campaign funds here.
Vote:March 13th, 2013 at 9:20 am
Garrett – oh well if you can’t get past the paywall there is a longer excerpt here:
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/theanchoress/2012/10/22/mcgovern-on-the-realities-of-a-market-economy/
(be warned, though, it is a Catholic blog).
But anyway, this is the money quote:
“My own business perspective has been limited to that small hotel and restaurant in Stratford, Conn., with an especially difficult lease and a severe recession. But my business associates and I also lived with federal, state and local rules that were all passed with the objective of helping employees, protecting the environment, raising tax dollars for schools, protecting our customers from fire hazards, etc. While I never have doubted the worthiness of any of these goals, the concept that most often eludes legislators is: “Can we make consumers pay the higher prices for the increased operating costs that accompany public regulation and government reporting requirements with reams of red tape.” It is a simple concern that is nonetheless often ignored by legislators.”
Vote:March 13th, 2013 at 9:21 am
I bet the old lefty voted for every rates increase and resisted every attempt to curb spending.
Vote: