Council Report Card? Or Manifesto?

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November 29, 2024

THROUGH THE PORTAL BY TREVOR AMMUNDSEN The other day I woke to find somebody had left a copy of the TCDC’s magazine called Our Coromandel on my doorstep. Literally left on the doorstep, I almost tripped over it on my way down the drive to get the morning paper. I presumed it was left by…

THROUGH THE PORTAL

BY TREVOR AMMUNDSEN

The other day I woke to find somebody had left a copy of the TCDC’s magazine called Our Coromandel on my doorstep. Literally left on the doorstep, I almost tripped over it on my way down the drive to get the morning paper. I presumed it was left by a staff member disgruntled about how much ratepayer money the Council’s Communications (PR, Spin etc) Department was given to spend on unproductive areas, but I do not know this for sure.

Anyhow, I was curious to see if this magazine was to be useful for the public of Coromandel or visitors. I hoped it would not be the opposite, just a Council figjam. I settled down to have a read and give you all the following report.

The first major article was a report from our Mayor which spread out over two pages. The main revelation in this section is that Len’s best quality is listening to people. On the surface this would appear to be correct after all I was present at the public meeting where he stated “That if Whitianga wanted a block wall (for Buffalo Beach) it could have it, subject to budgetary constraints”. He obviously read the room correctly with that one. It would be great if he also had a strength of doing what he said he would, but I guess that might happen in election year, or perhaps will be done by the next Mayor.

The Councillors are not left out of the lime light with a number of pages being devoted to small items about each councillor. I found it amazing how effective they had been at fixing roads, stopping seas from rising and generally doing good works around the Coromandel. None of them claimed to be a great listener so it’s a good thing we had the Mayor on board for this task. Community Board Members were also given the ability to promote themselves which they generally did with gusto, none more so than Community Board Chair, Krissy Robinson who had her picture taken putting on the local Mini-Putt Course she runs with her husband. Two adverts for one on the ratepayer has got to be a better return for our buck.

A number of TCDC staff were saluted in the magazine, starting with the CEO, pictured blowing her own trumpet and describing her first year or so at TCDC, and finishing with a section hidden on page 113 that featured a small article and picture of four staff members, Kath, Shubham, Luke and Bubbles. All seemed to be good people who enjoyed working for TCDC but I couldn’t help but think with the significant staff level increases at TCDC a section on all new staff members with an explanation as to cost and purpose would have been enlightening for the ratepayers.

Roughly divided into sections based upon the wards, each section also included a page saluting a local who was involved with their community. This honouring of a local volunteer was a nice gesture, and helps introduce these people to the wider community. For Mercury Bay, Jon Maud was profiled for the years of commitment he has given to the Bike Park – thoroughly deserved recognition.

Apart from the sections focused on people, the magazine also sets out to list achievements although for many of these it appeared that they are possibly future plans rather than achievements. For example, the Whitianga Esplanade Redevelopment doesn’t appear to be anything other than a budget at the moment although we note that the Buffalo Beach Erosion fix, known as the Shark Bite, has finally commenced after 18 months. The longest small job imaginable.

There are various articles on general issues that seek to be informative. One was on economic concepts written by the Council’s Economic Development Advisor. In this article, she posed the question “How does a place lift living standards…” and then answers her question with “thorough decisions and action”. One wonders how the decision to increase our rates by over 13% increases our living standards. There were a number of such articles which will appeal to different people. Articles on commerce, walking, biking, sports and things to do. The climate industry couldn’t be kept at bay, featuring in an article on the saving of Thames from rising sea levels. These have been at 1.6mm per annum over the past century but now it is claimed a 300mm rise within 20 years is “locked in”. I hope there is more evidence than this going into the decision to spend $78 million on sea walls in Thames, after all we do not want to over capitalise the town.

I did find a statistical article detailing the makeup of our population to be quite interesting. It told me that the average household income in the TCDC region was $79,580 whereas for the rest of New Zealand it was $132,540. Yet my rates are now over $4,000 a year. Makes me question how much money we are wasting at Council HQ.

At almost 130 pages long this magazine runs out of things to say so is packed out with advertorials. There is some useful stuff which is worth reading but this could have been circulated as a standard newsletter. This really did come across as an expensive self-congratulatory pat on the back for Council, a grand FIGJAM; the necessity of which I am sure others will also question.

THROUGH THE PORTAL

BY TREVOR AMMUNDSEN

Anyhow, I was curious to see if this magazine was to be useful for the public of Coromandel or visitors. I hoped it would not be the opposite, just a Council figjam. I settled down to have a read and give you all the following report.

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