This news is a big disappointment for us and will be for many readers, but isn’t particularly surprising, given what’s happened this year: Council Boss Mr Maxwell combined with the present mayor have managed to manipulate the council to get their way, riding roughshod over community wishes on just about everything and we gather that the MartinJenkins ‘whitewash’ report of the whole procedure that both men inappropriately followed to get the unwanted Guru Gateway was the last straw. (This matter is on next week’s council meeting agenda.)
So, as happened in Geoffrey’s case, reformers get bullied out. But it’s not just that — as we’ve seen, the Jacinda government’s negative attitude to local government as demonstrated by ‘3 Waters’ is another big issue. We’ll have more to say on all this.
Gwynn- I applaud your decision to neither seek re- election nor stand for Mayor come the next election. Your well informed voice (free of the multiple visible and less visible constraints imposed on elected members) will I have no doubt be heard in much needed local government reforms.
To clarify, I had made this decision a couple of months ago, and I decided earlier this week to announce it today as it was getting awkward with people asking me if I was going to run for Mayor, I’d tell them I’d make an announcement in the new year, and then they’d automatically assume it was going to be me announcing my campaign, so I didn’t want to carry on getting anyone’s hopes up.