More pictures and info here

A message from the council: “Over the next few days we’ll carry out repairs to part of Te Moana Road between the Golf Course entrance and Te Ara Kawakahia [the Maypole company subdivison entrance]. Work kicks off on Wednesday 26 June and should take 2-3 days, depending on the weather. Please take care if you’re in the area and follow the reduced speed limit to help keep everyone safe.”

By Don R. Neilson (1924-2013), New Zealander

Post on the Whale Oil blog — original

(Photoshopped image with Police Minister Stuart Nash on the left.)

Stuart Nash is fast gaining enough screw-up points to enable him to join Clare Curran and Phil Twyford in the Screw Up Club.

This is what happens when you listen to officials and don’t consult experts.

Nash has been told multiple times that the government’s gun buyback plans won’t work. When they find thousands of shitty .22 rifles handed back, but hardly any ARs and AKs like what was intended, then he and Jacinda will have some ’splaining to do.

Offering $250 for shitty old .22s is money for old rope.

A firearms dealer who was part of the expert group that gave advice on the Government’s gun buyback scheme says the group’s input was largely ignored.

John Herbert, who owns the online store New Zealand Repeating Arms, said the pricing scheme is a “complete joke” in some cases – and disrespectful of the expert group’s advice.

He said the group had only five hours to look at the price list, and was not consulted again.

“Like the whole process so far, there’s been no due diligence done because the Government is in such a hurry […]”

I can’t wait till the story about the screw up with the banned [gun] magazines comes out.

by Roger Childs

Farca reportedly wrote about being inspired by the Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand, calling the shooter there a “hero”… Los Angeles Times, June 17, 2019 article

Farca was placed in a mental health hold in 2011, according to court records.

Beyond the casualties, the worst thing about dramatic and unusual crimes is the possibility of crazies seeing a model for their own attention-seeking activities. Last week in Concord, California, police arrested a 23-year-old man who had made threats on an Internet chat room, admired the Nazis and had an illegal AR-15 semi-automatic rifle. The authorities followed up a tip from the FBI.

The Concord Police Department reported that Ross Farca threatened people of the Jewish faith, discussed committing a mass shooting at a synagogue and shooting law enforcement officers …  Farca played a video game called Stream and used ‘Adolf Hitler (6 million)’ as his screen name.

When authorities searched his home … they found a three-foot Katana sword, camouflage clothes, ammunition, a hunting knife, and books about Hitler youth and Nazi life, according to police.

In one of his online posts Farca stated: “I would probably get a body count of 30 (Jews) and then like five police officers because I would also decide to fight to the death.”  He intended to wear a Nazi uniform. Farca’s arrest came six weeks after four people were shot in a San Diego synagogue, one fatally.

The FBI can take the credit for this would-be terrorist being apprehended before he could carry out his anti-Jewish attack, and one wonders if the New Zealand intelligence services should have picked up soundings on Tarrant prior to his shooting spree in Christchurch last March.

A spectre is haunting the Kapiti Coast District Council… the spectre of Efficiency  (to re-render Karl Marx)

And so it should: waste, inefficiency and overstaffing has been a huge problem, for the last 12 years particularly.  We’ve posted numerous examples of the bureaucratic elite wasting large amounts of Ratepayers’ money on useless staff at the upper levels, a deluge of self-congratulatory publications, external consultants to tell them what to do, huge outside legal fees, over-payments to contractors, not to mention frivolity and ‘white elephants’.

However, there are things that councils need to do, and Ratepayers have every right to expect peak efficiency in the spending of their money in doing it.  In fact, the Local Government Act specifically requires it.

But, with the notable exception of David Scott, the existing councilors have shown little or no interest in achieving that. Just this April, noted ‘inefficiency-denier’ Cr Cootes of Otaki was warning in his column in the Otaki Mail about people who say this is a priority: “Don’t accept answers like ‘reduce spending’ — reduce spending from where?  Or ‘cutting staff numbers’ — tell me what roles are surplus to requirements?” he said.

We’ve actually dealt with those questions on several occasions, but either Cr Cootes doesn’t read our blog (unless there’s a mention of him) or he doesn’t believe anything that’s been written.

But the KCDC bosses themselves are clearly concerned about seeing all their dutiful ‘rubber stampers’ at the council table being replaced with new councilors that have quite different ideas.

A media release from Guy Burns is below.

Guy Burns, Deputy Chair of the Paraparaumu Raumati Community Board welcomes the news that Kapiti Coast District Council will vote on Thursday to undertake an organisational review, but he is wary of the timing and details.

“I question the timing of such a proposal and wonder who is the driving force behind the idea? The final report will most likely come out well after the October elections. Some may see the timing as an electioneering stunt designed to attract votes for current councillors.

“An organisational review of KCDC is required but I find the proposed review to be too wide-ranging. It encompasses governance, staff satisfaction, stakeholder engagement, cost effectiveness and efficiency. The review should focus primarily on organisational efficiency and cost effectiveness. Nearly half our rates go towards expenditure on staff costs; one of the highest ratios in the lower North Island.

“The background report for Councillors shows that the Chief Executive and staff will be responsible for organising the review–there is a danger that this will compromise the reviewer. I suggest that elected representatives undertake the process of organising and managing the review. This will help promote the independence and neutrality of the reviewer.

“I encourage Councillors to support such a review and hope there will be unanimous support for the proposal.”

A photo taken by Mark Dusting recently.  It’s possible they could be on Waikanae Beach also.    Info on the type