What's cooking?

We hear from a reliable source that three of the Cooks Gardens Trust Board have gone, while at this stage two are to stay, including chairman Gerald McDouall. Update shortly.

Update: The Cooks Gardens people are laying low and saying nothing, unlike the Diva who has made no secret of his desire to gain direct control over another city asset, going so far as to call the Board - who are generally distinguished and successful people in their own right - "an embarrassment to the city of Wanganui".

At the council meeting on 16 May - when the Diva tore into Cr Don McGregor and trust board chair Gerald McDouall - Recreation and Culture Manager Keith Hindson said it would be "neutrally fiscal" (sic) if the Diva drove out the trust board and the council ended up running it, which somewhat contradicted his written report, which made it into the minutes and which says:

The Council will also assume responsibility for the long and short term liabilities for which no provision has been made in either the 2004/05 Annual Plan or the Draft 2005/06 Annual Plan.

The "neutrally fiscal" argument conveniently overlooks the fact that the huge volunteer component would likely run a mile, and that if Cooks Gardens were a council entity it would be out of the running for all sorts of grants, sponsorships etc.

A costings report was supposedly going to prove the Hindson "neutrally fiscal" assertion but nothing has ever been produced anywhere public. Wonder if it made it as far as the chairman's briefing before the Diva ordered it filed in the place where all difficult reports go?

The Diva's grand plan has always been to get rid of the board and put Cooks under his old mate GK's ever-expanding Sport Wanganui empire. Wonder how he feels about that now GK is jumping ship?

There's no doubt the debt load of Cooks Gardens needs to be addressed, ideally without it becoming a burden on ratepayers - though the loss of such an iconic facility would have it's own economic costs on the city, which would inevitably impact on ratepayers and residents somewhere down the line.

But does everything have to be dealt with through conflict under the Diva's reign?

Further update: Since numerous comments on the port issue attempted to spin that LawsWatch thought Tuffy Churton's mob were the bees knees despite our repeated assertions to the contrary, let's be crystal on this:

1. Cooks Gardens finances are stuffed.
2. That's down to the people in charge, i.e. the Board, dating back to Poynter Council days.
3. But not all those on the Board now are long-term office holders. Indeed the Diva himself acknowledged at Council on 16 May:

...that Cooks Gardens Trust Board had been through some troubled times and that Mr McDouall and Ms [Melinda] Cade [the CEO] had only recently joined the Board. He said the Council wished to give the Board an opportunity for its new Chairman and Executive Officer to see if the Trust could satisfactorily improve its financial situation.

But then just one day later, he was in the Chron saying: "The Cooks Gardens Trust Board has over the last eight years hardly distinguished itself and on a number of issues has been an embarrassment to the city of Wanganui". No acknowledgement that the recent appointees bear no responsibility for the mess, or their efforts in trying to clear it up.

Just more unhelpful, divisive, personalised bile.

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