A reader has asked this question and although the Council media release — reproduced here — gives a figure of $250,000–$300,000, we’re sure this relates to the Representation Review (and could be overstated) which is something that the council has to do every 6 years anyway, so it is really just bringing it forward by 3 years. The major thing that costs Ratepayers money, as we well know, is when the council runs off to expensive outside consultants to tell them what to do — and it’s hard to imagine any reason why that would be justified.

It won’t likely cause a growth in councilor numbers either as there are already 3 Districtwide Council seats; all the KCDC needs to do is make one of them the Maori ward, in other words elected only by those on the Maori parliamentary roll within Kapiti, which is a straightforward task for a computer operator to produce.

It’s by no means ideal, but it’s better than what exists now, see the earlier post.