“I come here to bury Rates increases, not to praise them.”

That was the key phrase in his opening statement at the candidates meeting on Saturday.  He didn’t mince words about the culture of extravagance by the KCDC that has been responsible for the relentless increasing imposts on households to pay for it.

A few examples he gives on his website:–

1. Subsidised café
We should immediately stop the $64,000 p.a. subsidy that we ratepayers pay for the running of the Aquatic Centre Café. What other café gets this gift?
2. Save $40 -$60 million at the Coastlands Town Centre
Stop the $40 to $60 million spend at Coastlands and the utterly foolish town centre scheme. The plans include building a dune so you don’t have to go to the beach!
This grandiose nonsense and the fact that KCDC has already spent $4 million on the planning is gross. Why should Otaki or Waikanae village, or Waikanae Beach or Paraparaumu Beach or Raumati or Paekakariki ratepayers fund such a crazy idea? Kapiti is a collection of villages. That is its real identity, though the Proposed District Plan fails to strengthen the identity of each village. Available resources should be directed there. KCDC has already spent over $40 million at Coastlands with the new Council Chambers, the Library and the Aquatic Centre. It has had its share.
3. Spin doctors
I consider that the Council only needs 1 spin doctor, not 6.
4. Mayor’s Column writer
There should be no $40,000 pa for someone to write the Mayor’s weekly column.
5. No new Mayoral Car
There should be no new Mayoral car ($50,000 approx)
6. External Lawyers fees. External lawyers fees should be no more than $75,000. KCDC has its own lawyer in a $250,000 to $300,000 pay range. Yet in the last 3 years it has spent $1.69 million on external legal fees. Most of this has gone on fighting losing legal battles. Rather than listen to the ratepayers, this Council has run off time after time to get out of town lawyers to tell them what to do. All the cases I know about, KCDC lost.
7. Excessive red tape and bureaucratic costs
The charges are excessive, whether for the café, health, inspection costs or getting other consents. In fact there is so much fat, cutting those costs will be as painless as liposuction for the bureaucrats!

As well as speaking on Saturday, he provided a sheet of printed answers to the set questions, which make fascinating reading, for example:-

“[In 2014] a former Chief Judge of the Environment Court, a national expert on planning law, described the KCDC Proposed District Plan as the worst she had ever seen.  I appeared in person and as Chair of the Coastal Ratepayers Union on a number of occasions.  One of our concerns was the lack of community consultation. We said it had been a farce.”

And when it comes to the products of the council’s very expensive “communications team” and the aforementioned overpaid internal lawyer–

“The council needs to set a policy requiring all documents to be in plain English, to have indexes and be concise.  Then the CEO has to be told he has to deliver such documents. Simple.

“KCDC has a Proposed District Plan of 1,000 pages. Horowhenua District Council’s is 200 pages.”

We asked the three candidates — Peter Bollman, Penny Gaylor and Nigel Wilson — these same questions.  The Politics in the Paekakariki-Raumati Ward Facebook page also gave its candidates questionnaire to them.

Nigel Wilson

1. Do you support either a) a commuter diesel railcar train service between Waikanae and Palmerston North to connect with a few of the electric multiple units to/from Waikanae? – or b) extension of the electric multiple units with electrification to Otaki?

Actually I support both of those. We are currently investigating the options for a diesel engine that would use the Matangi carriages for a service north from Waikanae. I fully support electrification through to Otaki. At present the government has said they are not interested at all and as they are the primary funding partner it has gone no further. A change of view from the government or a change of government and electrification to Otaki gets back on the table.

2. Do you support or oppose the extension of the M2PP Expressway from Peka Peka to Otaki?

The money would be much better spent on providing fast, efficient public transport. Double tracking with a dedicated rail freight line makes sense.

3. Do you agree that new bus stops in the Kapiti area be furnished with creative, artistic bus shelters rather than the stock form?

Yes I do. And there needs to be a lot more of them. The key is figuring out who pays. The present cost per bus shelter is about $25,000 and there are many regulations that need to be met including full disability access. I put a proposal to all of the councils in the region about a specific targeted rate for building more bus shelters and all have agreed so we are now down to sorting out the details. There are over 3000 bus stops in the region and calls for a lot more and most do not have shelters.

4. What is your stance on the use of poison drops by the GWRC?

I presume this is a reference to 1080. GW uses 1080 on about 10% of its land, in mainly inaccessible areas as a method of possum control.  As people are aware possums spreading bovine Tb to cattle and deer; spreadi giardia and cryptosporidium to people through water supplies; eat eggs and chicks of our native birds; strip native forest, killing trees and cause soil erosion.

1080 has been very effective at controlling possums, rats and stoats. Native forest and birds flourish with pests at low numbers. It is biodegradable and doesn’t stay in water or soil.

However there are also drawbacks of using aerial 1080 in that 1080 baits and poisoned possum carcasses are lethal to dogs. Many people have strong views against its use.

5. Do you think public bicycle hire (free or otherwise) and electric vehicle charging points (free or otherwise) are a matter for the GWRC or the local councils?

If there are not entrepreneurs doing this then yes I think Councils can have a role. We are currently encouraging someone to set a public bicycle hire service for the new cycleway through Queen Elizabeth Park. Electric vehicle charging stations are going to flourish in coming years. GWRC is moving as rapidly as possible to a fully electric bus fleet and electric cars are here already and will become available in far greater numbers and at a lot less cost than they are now.

6. Do you think there should be webcams in Kapiti and if so where?

I am a bit ambivalent about webcams (assuming this is cctv). At public places like railway stations and open plazas they have been very useful. However, there are downsides regarding citizen privacy as well. Many businesses already have cctv in place. I like this picture and there is a caption that says “1984 was not supposed to be used as an instruction manual”

7. What is your stance on feeding bore water into the Waikanae River from the recharge system opened last year?

I think it is a poorly thought out, highly experimental scheme which could end up costing Kapiti tens of millions. The bore water itself (another very expensive failed experiment) is already known to be pretty dodgy so feeding it back into the river is of dubious value. Readers may have noticed that through the entire election campaign none of the candidates (primarily current Mayor, Councillors and community board members – have mentioned the recharge scheme at all – not a single mention anywhere. They know it is an incredibly expensive experiment and they have no idea if it will work or not. The maximum testing so far has been limited to 20%.

8. Your feelings about the ‘Super City’ concept dropped last year?

I think the whole debate was very poorly handled. The Local Government Commission had an agenda and drove it hard without there being much in the way of genuine public discussion about the merits and downsides of amalgamation. Lots of the politicians freaked out thinking they would be unemployed and immediately went to extreme views. Similarly many adherents of a Super City overstated the benefits without much evidence. So I was very disappointed an intelligent, reasoned debate was not had. In any event the concept of a Super City for this region is toast. Discussions are taking place about shared services which is helpful. I believe the whole region and its constituent parts would gain significantly from have a comprehensive spatial plan.

We noticed in Iride McCloy’s election leaflet the statement “servicing a $9 million+ council debt” — in fact the total council debt as at 30 June last year, as stated on page 122 in the annual report here was $140 million.   That was an increase of $15 million on the previous year.

Assuming the increase for this year was similar, then we are up to about $155 million.  The annual report for the year to 30 June 2016 hasn’t been put on-line yet.

The $9 million figure is, however, close to what ratepayers pay to service that debt in interest.

The Waikanae Residents Meet the Candidates – meeting of 17 September 2016.

Comment from Margaret Stevenson-Wright: candidate for the Waikanae Community Board.

A huge thank to Aldous MacIvor, MC Mike Smith, their assisting team and sponsor New World Waikanae, for facilitating yesterday’s meeting.

The high number of residents present signalled to me a real community intention to determine the degree to which any candidate really understood the challenges facing Waikanae and the skills that they would bring to address these.

It bodes well for Kapiti and specifically for Waikanae that there are a number of experienced, skilled people who can translate strategy into relevant action -– standing for the role of Mayor, Greater Wellington Regional Council, Councillors and Community Board.

The degree to which those elected are committed to partnering with local expertise will be a crucial factor in the survival of Waikanae.

Our next Waikanae Community Board cannot assume that it singularly holds all of the answers or the skills to identify emergent issues.

It will need the capability to manage strong community-centred consultation that enables local expertise to lead both planning and decision making. To enable less invites risk and unintended consequences.

It will need to ably represent and advocate for Waikanae in the area of Council and Government agencies.

I have proven experience in the effective management of both community centred consultation and meaningful collaboration across local authorities, Government agencies and other groups vital to economic development and the protection of our natural and cultural resources.

I invite you to invest in the contribution that I can make.

Margaret Stevenson-Wright

Those who have read the election pages in last week’s issue of the Kapiti News will have noticed that only about half the candidates were given profile statements with a photo.  That’s because to get one, you had to buy an advertisement of similar proportion.

Regional Councillor Nigel Wilson, one of the candidates who declined to accept such extortion, said he rang its editor David Haxton and told him that it was the type of thing you would expect from Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. 🙂

The opposition Kapiti Observer paper did give space to all candidates,  even if the ‘sound bites’ were severely edited down to the point where you could be forgiven for wondering what differences there are between them.

This was the fourth, largest and last, held in the Waikanae Memorial Hall, and about 200 locals braved the rain to hear 26 of the 37 candidates standing for the different seats.

The meeting organisers had put set questions in the agenda, but not all candidates addressed them. Mayoral candidates were given 5 minutes initial talk time, the others 3 minutes.  A hat was then passed along the candidates with supplementary questions, of which they took one each and spoke for a minute.  The other candidates were then given the opportunity to say simply whether they agreed or disagreed.

All the Mayoral candidates were there except Jackie Elliott who was blocked in by water. Then about half of the District-wide candidates were next.

Two of the four Waikanae Ward candidates — Geoffrey Churchman and Iride McCloy — followed.  Michael Scott had sent a written statement which the MC read out.

All three GWRC candidates for the Kapiti seat were there (they had not been mentioned on the leaflet) and gave their speeches.

Last, but by no means least, were 7 of the 9 Waikanae Community Board candidates.  Absent were Jill Lloyd (still on an overseas holiday) and Eric Gregory (no explanation).

Regional Councilor Nigel Wilson told Geoffrey Churchman before the start that the community boards should be the ‘coal face’ of community interaction with the council, the main forum for citizens to bring their local issues and concerns to.  The chairmen of the boards and the Ward councilors should then take those concerns to the council meetings which in turn should instruct the CEO to make the wanted actions happen.  Too often it is all in the other direction.

As mentioned earlier, Waikanae’s Community Board members have come under particular criticism for lack of communication and a collective nonchalant attitude to their role.  Geoffrey Churchman told Michael Scott last year that more pro-activity and much better communication with citizens were needed — but that message hasn’t been heeded.

A few of the sparrows sheltering under the eaves of our garage.  And the Waikanae River is in flood again.  The council accompanied its water meters two years ago with signs saying “our water is precious”.  Not on days like these.

It doesn’t surprise us at all — people object to having new taxes imposed on them, particularly when it involves a totally ludicrous and massive waste of their money in the first place.  Scrapping the water charges will provide at least some immediate relief from ever-increasing council imposts.

Waikanae Ward candidate Geoffrey Churchman with the microphone, on his right fellow Ward candidate Iride McCloy; on his left the Grey Power MC, then district-wide candidates Emily Boonen and Peter Ellis.  Sitting at the back is the time-keeper.  (Geoffrey says that today plaster casts are synthetic and you get a choice of blue, black, pink or purple.)

About 50 Grey Power members came along this morning to have 10 of the 14 District-wide candidates and 3 of the 4 Waikanae Ward candidates (Michael Scott being the absent one) inform, enlighten and entertain them.

District-wide candidates Angela Buswell and David Scott took seats in the audience as they had already participated in the Mayoral candidates meeting on Wednesday, but they were invited to answer questions regardless.

Mayor Church’s leadership came in for more than a little criticism from candidates, as did the council’s CEO Dougherty.  Apart from the rampant ever-increasing council expenditure, an audience member pointed out that the council had been found by the Ombudsman to be in breach of the Public Records Act, and had until the end of this month to rectify that situation.

A candidate said several council staff have left recently in frustration over Dougherty.

Cr David Scott read a paragraph of a letter he received from Mayor Church saying he was not to talk to council staff, other than the briefest of pleasantries such as “Good morning”.  Good grief…

We were told that Mayor Church sees no problem with the 4.7% rates increase (versus 0.4% inflation) this year; neither does Cr Gavin Welsh who is likewise standing for Mayor.  That, however, was not the view of most of the candidates who spoke today, nor of the audience.

Three minutes initial speaking time each didn’t use up an hour, so there were several audience questions.

The latest issue of the Kapiti Grey Power magazine is devoted to the election with Mayoral candidates getting a full page each and other candidates half a page.

You probably have the same question we do — why can’t Mayor Church do this himself?  It’s just another example of how KCDC Boss Dougherty wastes your money.