Slip slidin' away
Seems "shoddy book keeping" is to blame for the disappearance off the books of $3.1 million worth of debtors, $1.2 million of which are unpaid rates. There are also advances of $1.2 million, including $565,000 to the Quay School of Arts and $260,000 to the Cooks Gardens Trust Board.
That level of debt is exceptionally high, considering a city the size of Auckland wrote off just $166,000 in bad debts and allowed for $218,000 in doubtful debts in 2004, and this year is forecasting $0 and $380,000 respectively (They also collected $2,365,000 in penalties last year, and plan on netting $2,415,000 this year).
The Mayor promises in today's Chron a new "get tough" policy to collect debt, saying good ratepayers have been subsidising the bad ones. Fair enough, especially where the problem is those who won't pay. But we wonder what the policy will be for those who can't pay?
A quick and very random search of the policies of various councils reveals everything from bankrupting residents through allowing pensioners to accrue a rates debt against their property and then selling it when they die to sending in the bailiffs to seize goods and even sending the recalcitrant ratepayer to prison.
Back in Wanganui, Council has reference to a Rates Remission Policy - which was supposedly to be complete by March 2004 - in its Local Governance Statement (512kb pdf file), but no such policy appears to have been promulgated. In fact, it appears to have been left to slide, which is exactly the criticism aimed at previous Councils by the Mayor.
So, much as it's essential everyone pays their fair share of rates, it's to be hoped that when dealing with those among us who may be unable to do so for whatever reason, Council officers are instructed to behave in a predictable, orderly, fair and - dare we say - humane manner according to a considered policy rather than simply being used as the basis for fleeting Mayoral grandstanding.
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32 comments:
Since the "nil" rates rise has bitten hardest in the areas that can least afford it, I don't expect things are going to improve anytime soon.
But, as Mickey (or was that Fred Dagg) said: They just don't know how lucky they are because they are so asset rich now (no thanks to the diVision crew) that they can just sell up and move to Patea or Raetihi.
But Mayoral grandstanding puts Wanganui on the map, and no-one cares about that silly "policy" stuff anyway.
;)
Whoa! St John's Hill's plight is worsening. Not only to the long-suffering residents have to put up with Michael Laws et al, the whole damn lot seems to be sinking onto the flat.... it never rains but it pours.
Stupid, stupid LawsWatch.
The rates remission policy of council was signed off at the 2005/6 Annual Plan and a quick glance at any A & A agenda would see that people apply on occasion. Three in 2005 which doesn't suggest much hardship!
Carol - if you're going to represent council issues then try not to misrepresent them. You only affect your own credibility, as little of it as remains.
Also how is the mayor "grandstanding" by pouinting out that some bastards who don't pay and being subsidised by decent people who do? The Cooks Gardens Trust Board and the Quay School of Arts CAN afford to pay but don't. What's THAT about???
Get over it you anonymous wankers.
Laws won, he's doing a great job of sorting out Wangas, and if you want to promote yourself as the champion of credit risks, then no wonder the rest of us said "up yours" to the Sarjeant extension.
We won, you lost. Suck on that.
In the latest Listener, Diana Witchel puts the boot into Mickey's fellow loser celeb Paul Holmes and says of the Tauranga dipstick Bob Clarkson:
Bob Clarkson, of the left testicle now so famous that it could well find itself starring alongside Michael Laws in the next series of Celebrity Treasure Island.
Is she trying to tell us, do you think, that our celebrity mayor rates down there with the shrivelled bollocks of Bob the Builder?
You decide. I thought was reasonable as far as media releases go and no spin that I can see!
Council "discovers" $3M of debtors - 10/10/05
Mayor Michael Laws said that the new financial team at the Council had recently "discovered" $3.1 million worth of debtors, and that "every ratepayer in Wanganui has been disadvantaged by a poor Council debt recovery policy".
"With Council debt estimated to rise to $54 million by 2008, and interest charges to almost double, the Council's finances are under severe pressure.
"But this Council has now discovered that some of this problem might have been eased had the previous administration put a debt recovery policy in place. Instead it was left to slide. That meant ratepayers were, in effect, subsidising Council debtors. I have insisted that this state of affairs must end."
Recently-appointed chief financial officer Julian Harkness has reported to Council that it has debtors of $3.1 million of over 90 days. $1.2 million of those are in unpaid rates. There are also advances of $1.2 million, of which the Quay School of Arts ($565,000) and the Cooks Gardens Trust Board ($260,000) have been the principal beneficiaries.
Council will also need to formally write off an additional $57,000 of bad debts at Tuesday's Finance and Administration Committee meeting. Most of those debts were owed by bankrupt businesses or individuals.
"The reality is that there has been some very shoddy past book-keeping. This has meant good payers have been subsidising the bad ones. That practise must and will stop. The new finance team at Council is now on top of the issue, but that $3.1 million is still outstanding."
Diana Wichtel got dumped by Michael Laws at university. She was a classmate of mine. Everyone knows that and, as they say, Hell hath no fury.
Oh, truly pathetic - I daresay Diana's moved on, but has Michael?
Incidently, have you noticed that all Lawsmob's attacks on this post are misrepresentations of what the post says. It looks pretty impotent when you have to make up things to attack, Mobsters.
And why hasn't the remissions policy been completed? Slack.
The Cooks Gardens Trust Board and the Quay School of Arts CAN afford to pay but don't. What's THAT about???
You've misread the original post. The School and the Trust don't owe rates (insofar as we can tell - Councils don't usually make public the names of defaulters till legal action commences).
The "missing" million happens to include advances made by Council to those bodies.
We in no way imply that either the Cooks Gardens Trust Board or the Quay School of Arts have failed to pay whatever rates may be due.
no spin that I can see
Nor us. Did we say there was? No. Grandstanding and spin are two different things, practiced at different times and often simultaneously by Mickey. But no detectable spin in this instance.
Stupid, stupid LawsWatch.
The rates remission policy of council was signed off at the 2005/6 Annual Plan
Extract from the 2005/06 Annual Plan, p54:
Policy on the remission of rates
The Remission of Rates Policy will assist ratepayers who experience difficulty in paying their rates due to the following circumstances:
• financial hardship;
• natural disaster or calamity;
• assisting community sporting and other organisations with their survival or making membership more accessible.
The policy enables the Council to consider the remission of penalties where rates have not been received by the penalty date due to circumstances outside the ratepayers’ control.
The policy can provide relief from uniform charges for rural land that is non-contiguous (not adjoining), farmed as a single entity and owned by the same ratepayer.
The policy also enables the remission of rates on properties protected for natural, historic or
cultural conservation purposes.
Policy on the postponement of rates
This policy assists personal ratepayers, who experience financial circumstances that affect
their ability to pay rates, to postpone the payment of rates.
This policy enables the Council to delay the payment of rates until a certain time or until certain events occur.
We'd read this as informing what a policy will do, once Council gets round to having one. But you're saying this is the policy?
So people can appeal to be able to postpone paying for a "certain time" due to "certain events". And then what, if they still can't come up with the readies?
Right, just so long as we have a clear set of criteria, then.
I knew Diana at university & there was a fling I heard. Long time ago - he doesn'ttalk of her but she does of him!
Ah, so there IS a rates remission policy, L/watch?
It's obvious that its on a case by case basis and as an example check out the Comm Dev agenda I've picked up today. avage Club are applying and Nicki is saying No.
I have never heard the mayor ever discuss Diana Wichtel in public or private conversations, and I do not believe that the association is true. It is irrelevant also - as was the Wichtel comment. who cares?
The important part of the mayor's media release is that yet another f***-up has been revealed at City Hall. Add the forestry "investment', the 20% increase in civic debt, the proceeding of the Upper Vic Ave upgrade without the $, and the lack of transparency over the arjeant fund-raising and I'm actually glad we have an aggressive mayor who can sort out all this s***.
Can you imagine what would have happened if his take-no-prisoners attitude hadn't happened? Wanganui would have built the extension (yes), run out of money, hit the wall and imposed 15-20% rate rises upon the ratepayer.
Yeah, that's what LawsWatch & the whingers have never done and that's provide a realistic, costed alternative to what this mayor is doing.
Can you imagine what would have happened if ...
we'd ended up with a mayor who didn't want to build a celebrity career by abusing and belittling just about everyone who crossed his path; by promising more than he could deliver (let's talk about things like the swimming pool in a couple of years); who didn't alienate and marginalise large sections of council staff; who didn't make a dick of himself on tv, radio and in this blog; who didn't alternate between bribing and cowering his "opposition"; who wasn't fundamentally dishonest and dangerous ... oh well, I could go on but revealing his many flaws is a job best left to him.
You can add Jenna (Fairy Godmother) Less to the lengthening list of alienated (read pissed off) staff. He's just yanked, at the last minute, an ad she had been working on with the Crhon.
And you can add ...
what if we had a mayor who knew the difference between governance and (micro) management; who allowed the CEO to hire staff instead of indulging in a bizarre form of "nepotisim" (whatever the female variant of that is) and let them get on with their job without applying his personal prejudicies and vanity to every minute aspect of the way this business functions.
So, not only is he rarely here. When he is here, far from doing his job (public servant) he makes everyone else's job harder. No wonder he's never done a proper days work in his life: if he ever got a job he'd get sacked.
"Yeah, that's what LawsWatch & the whingers have never done and that's provide a realistic, costed alternative to what this mayor is doing."
Here's one: politeness, competence, dedication and humility.
Your mayor spends council funds like water. We'll see who's bleating about costings once the auditors have been through.
re: Heart
"Mr McGowan’s report said Mayor Michael Laws had suggested himself for inclusion in the working party along with Deputy Mayor Dot McKinnon and councillors Rangi Wills, Murray Hughes and Randhir Dahya."
What, no Nicky Higgie? That's hardly a vote of confidence in her, is it? I wonder how long she's going to keep smiling at meetings. No input from the Friends, then. What's the matter, Michael, did you realise you'd set up a body you have no control over?
So the Chron. has finally started asking questions first raised here.
"What, no Nicky Higgie..."
Who needs Nicky when you've got Muzza. With his extensive knowledge of architecture, his new-found enthusiasm for kon sul tay shun and his rapier wit, he'll be just the man for the job.
Yeah, that's what LawsWatch & the whingers have never done and that's provide a realistic, costed alternative to what this mayor is doing."
Here's one: politeness, competence, dedication and humility.
Your mayor spends council funds like water. We'll see who's bleating about costings once the auditors have been through.
6:23 AM, October 11, 2005
=======================
"Your mayor" happens to be saving both this council and city millions, has stopped the annual rates hike, had incompetent managers pressured to leave (Foster/Munneke), and uncovered more dodgy deals at council in 18 weeks than Chas did in 18 years.
Wanganui would be lost without him & only you arts whingers - who don't actually earn other than subsistence money - are just jealous.
Repeat after me: We won, you lost!
And Dull Dutton ... he aint your servant. Only your todger could claim that status.
That's right, personal attack is always preferable to substance. I suppose you're going to include the drop in international forestry prices in the examples of "dodgy deals" then. Haven't you got some fundraising to do, a swimming pool to build? After all, you're the one saying how little everyone else is doing. Chop chop, boy, get cracking. Stop wasting our time with specious bullshit and do something positive for a change.
Nygllhuw, what's your take on this approach to public debate? It's well-nigh impossible to get people interested in Council affairs in the first place; given your own aversion to abuse, would you say anonymous here is the real "well-poisoner" among us?
At 9.45pm anonymous said ...
Anonymous said...
You can add Jenna (Fairy Godmother) Less to the lengthening list of alienated (read pissed off) staff. He's just yanked, at the last minute, an ad she had been working on with the Crhon
_______________________
Prove it!
"Your mayor" happens to be saving both this council and city millions, has stopped the annual rates hike, had incompetent managers pressured to leave (Foster/Munneke), and uncovered more dodgy deals at council in 18 weeks than Chas did in 18 years.
Wanganui would be lost without him & only you arts whingers - who don't actually earn other than subsistence money - are just jealous.
Repeat after me: We won, you lost!
7:55 AM, October 11, 2005
You may consider you won but unfortunately Wanganui has lost.
Micky saving Wanganui millions, you got to be joking.
Why do you insist that all who write here are "arts whingers" (your words)?
I for one am not connected to the art world in any way. I do however realise these people contribute to the community even if you are blinkered.
You should repeat to yourself "I must get my head out of the sand"
read a notice to the public on the counter in council offices that stated that due to the nil rates increase policy building consent fees have increased(from july 2005)---and they sure have!!
another little known way of collecting income that could slip by unnoticed.
when i commented on it to the employee serving me she raised her eyes to heaven and sighed!
anyone support this move?
Fair enough because ratepayers should not be subsidising building consents. It should be full cost recovery and I'm surprised that it wasn't.
"- who don't actually earn other than subsistence money -"
Prove it.
You can't of course, because you're full of shit. I bet you don't actually know a single artist.
ratepayers should not be subsidising building consents
What do we pay rates for, then, moron? The building consent process is a service that Council are required to provide; of course it should be funded by rates. You might have your head so far up Mickey's arse you can't see, but if you look around sometime, you'll see the buiilding trade in Wangas is booming. So what do council do? Make it harder and more expensive. Your whole argument's fucked, dickhead.
"Why do you insist that all who write here are "arts whingers" (your words)?"
I think it's intimidation: calling people names is a sure way to limit the numbers of people who are prepared to take part in debate. Bullying pure and simple. All bullies are cowards, remember, so what is it Pottymouth is afraid of?
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