Councils Holding the Country to Ransom

[Davo36]

Papakura Council in the News

Interesting to see the council I'm having a lot of difficulty on Campbell Live last night: http://ondemand.tv3.co.nz/Thursday-J...3/Default.aspx. The council story starts around 11 mins in.

[eri]

a usa team now has the america's cup and wants to hold the next event in san francisco, home of the winning team

even with everyone seemingly on board and wanting the event there, many think it will be next to impossible to hold within the next 4 years due to the local gov. saying, "yes, yes, we want it, come spend your money here" while at the same time saying, "no, no, we will not change any of our requirements for multi-year impact studies or the right of anyone to block anything if they fel it will detract from their lives"

to a certain degree cities have become huge, living, breathing, ageless lifeforms and as such they are worth far more than any inhabitant or even groups of inhabitants both in terms of value and importance

as popular as arnie is, if america had to choose between him and LA, he would be gone by lunchtime

these huge life forms are guided and shaped in their growth by the high priests of council, who see their enemies as the short-sighted, selfish inhabitants who dare to put themselves before the beast

theirs is a difficult task to guide the growth while appeasing the vengeful masses who use democracy to periodically cull the council of those immoderate priests who get blinded by their powers and let their names appear in headlines

remember

council never sleeps

but tirelessly works away at providing YOU

a better city

whether you want it or not

waddaya think shalodge, did i catch the tone?

[Davo36]

A Reporter's View of Councils

Just saw this in The Aucklander: http://www.theaucklander.co.nz/opini...-hack/3916605/

A couple of good parts:

The first thing you need to learn is there are two distinct sides in any council story: the elected officials who believe they wield the power; and the council officers who actually wield the power.

The second thing you need to know is the elected officials will lie to you and council officers will conceal the facts. If you get close to the facts, councillors will form alliances, close ranks and tell you more lies. Officers will lose files, leak partial truths to other media and then inundate you with an avalanche of material from which the facts could never be recovered by a cadaver dog. It really is fun.

[Perry]

Sounds like ye olde 'groupthink'
under new nomenclature.
.

[Davo36]

I Hope NZ Doesn't Ever Get Like This

I wasn't sure whether to put this here or in the Forum Funnies section. It's absolutely unbelievable, it's the account from a senior planner in England of how the council works (or doesn't):http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...h-sickies.html

A few little snippets:

Back to the day's business. Jerry is the next to arrive at 10.25am - before he takes his jacket off he performs his morning ritual of taking both his phones off the hook.

God forbid that any resident and council tax payer should be able to speak to him and get some of the advice he's paid £64k a year to dispense.

Despite all this, my department makes a huge amount of money - mostly from private developers.

If they want to build something it costs them £2,300 just to have an initial planning meeting with us.

What they don't know is that we've already had a meeting and decided they probably won't get permission - unless they agree to a 'planning gain' - a dodgy but perfectly legal practice whereby a developer who wants to build, say, a hotel, will be told that he can have his planning permission, but only if he also agrees to build a community centre too.

It's the same story across the world: when a nation's public sector is allowed to expand into a bloated behemoth, it is almost impossible to cut it down to size, still less to change the culture of waste and laziness that sets in.

[spurner]

Definitely the forum funnies!

I'm sure there's some truth in it, and it offers a nice insight into how the public sector can work.

I recall reading an article recently about a lady who was fired from a French government department after speaking out about a similar situation. I'm sure the French would rival the Brits!

[eri]

and both would come far behind the italians and greeks who often don't even bother to go in to the office

they all need sorting

even the quangos who actually do go in and do stuff

but quite pointlessly

like the building standards people who said it was ok to stop using treated wood in nz

"Even though they are responsible for substantial budgets, the quangos have seldom, if ever, been asked to justify their budgets or outline their contribution to the economy and society as a whole,"

[Davo36]

There is definitely some truth in that article, some of it I've experienced here:

• Phones off the hook. I have never ever been able to reach a council officer I want to speak to by ringing them. Their phones are always on answerphone. They seem to screen their calls and call back the ones they really have to.
• Absenteeism: When dealing with the council over some issue, you're constantly having to deal with 2-3 people because the first person always seems to be off and then the second one is, so you go back to the first etc.
• Bribery: In that article if you wanted to develop something (presumably something big) you'd have to build a community centre as part of the deal. Well it's not that bad here but you do have to agree to pay lots of upfront fees like development contributions, financial contributions, reserve contributions and many more.

I wish we were a corrupt country, then I could have slipped someone $20k under the table and had a fast tracked application approved. Instead by playing by the woefully one sided set of rules, it's cost much more than that and taken ages.

[Davo36]

Bus and parking fines 'a money grab'

From today's Herald:

Bus and parking fines 'a money grab'





An Auckland City Council employee with a video camera to record the illegal use of bus lanes. Photo / Paul Estcourt



The Auckland City Council has a target to raise $12 million more in bus lane and parking fines that one councillor says is a "straightforward money grab" to hold down rates.
Councillor Mark Donnelly has produced budget documents showing Mayor John Banks and the Citizens & Ratepayers majority instructed officers to hire an extra 30 traffic wardens and three infringement review officers in equal lots over the three-year term of the current council.
The target was to raise an additional $2 million in fines in year one, $4 million in year two and $6 million in year three - a total of $12 million.
"The increase in wardens was done through the budget-setting process. There was no prior case demonstrating a need on safety or parking. It was solely revenue-based," said Mr Donnelly, an independent who voted against the measures.
"The deliberate increase in enforcement and subsequent income has seen wardens prowling local shopping centres constantly. They are out in suburban streets in the early hours of the morning, issuing warrant of fitness tickets," he said.



Source

[spurner]

I read in the DomPost today that the WCC had approved construction of a new Countdown supermarket in Newtown. Apparently they were asked to stop construction during the RWC though.

The strange thing though is they have to provide carparking for neighbouring businesses free of charge! Yes, provide free parking to your competition.

Wellington hospital is virtually across the road too, so the parking is going to be a real free-for-all.

[graemeh]

The strange thing though is they have to provide carparking for neighbouring businesses free of charge! Yes, provide free parking to your competition.

I think you'll find they have to remove a lot of the existing on street parking to allow the traffic to flow in/out of the new supermarket so I think it is only reasonable.

[Davo36]

Island millionaires lose fight to build

Even if you have lots of money, the right architects and so on, it's very hard to build sometimes. With this story, the Auckland City Council gave permission to build, the Auckland Regional Council said no and the Environment Court also said no.

Island millionaires lose fight to build

By Anne Gibson
4:00 AM Saturday Jul 24, 2010



The Spencers' Man O'War vineyard. Photo / Supplied



Auckland's secretive multimillionaire Spencer family have been banned from building two sleek new architect-designed houses on their $75 million Waiheke Island estate.
The publicity-shy Spencers, who are estimated to be worth $650 million, control an entire end of the island via their 1800ha cattle, sheep, wine and olive operations.
For three decades, they have dominated the unpopulated northeastern portion from Owhiti Bay to Man O'War Bay via their Man O'War Station with six houses, farm buildings, a rapidly expanding winery and 90,000 native trees which they planted.
Expert Environment Court witnesses said the station's owners wanted to live in a new main dwelling "as the principal family base for the owners of the property when resident on the island".

Source

[eri]

i saw that and was thinking to post it somewhere

ARC 1st against the wall come the revolution brother

seem to be absolutely unanswerable to anyone

and feel they have to reverse a few ACC decisions every year to show they actually do something

and why not stop rich people from building new houses in areas that less 1% of aucklanders will ever see

if we have to suffer the eyesore of urban sprawl

so do they

if a tree falls in a forest

and there's no one around to hear

do the ARC need to get involved over un-permitted tree felling?

[Davo36]

Yeah just read the last line of that article:

ARC chairman Mike Lee commented: "We succeeded in protecting the integrity of this outstanding natural coastline."

What he really means is "We succeeded in stopping some rich arsehole do what he wanted on his land."

I'm sure this is the mentality. They would argue it's not of course.

[Davo36]

What's Good for the Goose is Good for the Gander

Late fines for councils from today

Nina Fowler | Monday August 2, 2010 - 12:45pm
From today, councils will incur financial penalties for delays in resource consent processing.
The Resource Management (Discount on Administrative Charges) Regulations 2010 require councils to apply a minimum 1% discount for each day a consent is processed beyond the 20-working day statutory requirement up to a maximum of 50%.
The regulations are intended to reduce delays and help the economic recovery, Environment Minister Nick Smith said in a press release today.
“I know some councils are uncomfortable with these financial penalties for lateness but if it is good enough for the goose it is good enough for the gander,” he said.
“Councils put penalties on rates if they are paid late so it is fair enough that when councils are late, they too face financial penalties.”
According to the release, between 1999 and 2008, councils granted themselves an extension on 25% more permits, and the numbers of those processed late grew by 13%. Historically, less than half of consents have been processed within the 20-day statutory period.
Ministry for the Environment officials attended council presentations in all regions to explain the new regulations. Dr Smith said feedback from the sessions indicates that councils are now considering how to improve their timeliness.


Source