As was observed in several posts last year, the council’s bureaucratic elite spends huge amounts of Ratepayers’ money on expensive outside consultants, usually Auckland based.  Their ideas are then turned into plans and pursued.  Period.

There are multiple ‘consultation’ documents on different topics released each year, full of expensively produced fancy graphics, because there is a requirement under the Local Government Act (see this post) that the public are consulted.  But it’s apparent that the most that can be expected from this process is minor tweaking. The substance will remain unchanged.

What happens after tens of millions of dollars are squandered on useless projects?  No problem, they’ll just tax the Ratepayers even more to repeat that. In the ten years from 2006 to 2016 our own Rates including the water charges went up 61% — general inflation in that same time was 20%.  A real increase of 41%.

What about the elected councillors?  Few issued any kind of manifesto, they just uttered dozens of pasty statements, as one of our readers said.  It seems that the majority are just there to massage their own egos; the only one to seriously question what the bureaucratic elite intend is Cr David Scott — and we’ve seen what’s happened to him as a result.

All we have said in our submission on the annual plan is there must be a thorough independent management and performance examination and audit of the KCDC bureaucracy.  Will the mayor and councillors agree to that?  Don’t hold your breath.