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Why am I not surprised

Oh my goodness, this is ridiculous.

Sorry to rant on again about our local council but I suspect a lot of people all over New Zealand are similarly disgruntled with the actions of their local government.

The South Waikato District Council however, take incompetence to a new level.

It's been very interesting to hear PM Luxton's take on exactly why so many councils are now hiking their rates by unprecidented amounts and I think he's right on the money.

Far too many of these local government entities have forgotten exactl why they exist and that's to deliver *core* services such as roading, fresh water, wastewater management, rubbish collection and things such as libraries and parks.

That's it.

Local government does not exist to waste ratepayers' money on grand projects that are actually far better handled by private industry but that's exactly what most of them have been doing. Now the financial penalties associated with these ill-conceived and badly managed projects is being felt by way of massive rate rises that are expected to be the norm for years to come.

The irony of the PM's rebuke was that as he told civil leaders off for their focus on vanity projects such as the building in which he was speaking, the streets outside were flooded due to a broken water pipe. That convention center cost Wellington ratepayers $180m and is losing money according to scoop.

Owch!

Despite the clearly visible proof of Luxton's claims, Mayors attending the conference almost universally criticised the PM's claims, something that ought to be a worry to each and every ratepayer in New Zealand.

However, today I talk about my own district, the South Waikato where yet another example of how this council continues to waste money due to stupidity and a total failure to listen to good advice.

As this story reveals, a new industrial subdivision created by the council, at a cost of millions to ratepayers, is now on hold due to the presence of soil contamination including asbestos.

WTF?

Council spokesperson Paul Bowden is quoted as saying:

With this in mind, you'd expect that any intelligent developer would have fully scoped the scale and magnitude of the contamination so that an accurate cost could be built into the project budget. Yet...

Excuse me?

Who spends millions of dollars of ratepayers money without actually knowing what one of the largest costs associated with the project is likely to be?

I sense that this project, like virtually all of the other non-core projects embarked on by the SWDC will run over time, over budget and fail to deliver on the promises being made for it.

Why does this happen time and time again?

Because nobody in this organisation learns from their (very many) mistakes so those same mistakes are made time and time again.

But hey... it's only ratepayers' money and there's always more where that came from, right?

The SWDC has proudly crowed that 14 out of the 15 sites on the development have already been sold -- which begs the question as to why the council was even involved in this development if it was so clearly something the private sector could have created and profited from?

Might it be that the reputation of the council precedes it and very few private investors would risk their capital to such projects in a district where the council is so disfunctional and given to persuing personal agendas ahead of the best interests of the community or businesses?

In the worst case, this new development will require as much as 40,000 cubic metres of contaminated topsoil to be removed and disposed of which would require the whole thing to either be canceled or produce another hideous financial burden on ratepayers.

I'm sorry but Luxton has nailed the problem that is crippling ratepayers. Too many councils operating outside their remit and creating a mountain of bottomless pits into which ratepayers' money is being thrown.

I want fresh, clean, safe water when I turn on the tap. I want my toilet to flush. I want my rubbish collected regularly and I want roads that are safe to drive on. A few parks to enjoy on a sunny weekend would also be nice. Leave the business developments, fancy conference centres and the creation of civic monuments up to those better qualified and independently funded.

Then, and only then, might people not live in fear of the next rate-rise which sees them paying ever-more for ever-less.

Carpe Diem folks!

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