Words fail us...
...and when they do, someone comes along and says precisely what needs to be said. Hats off to GM Morris (not a known malcontent, and, as a retired person presumably one of the grey army we're repeatedly told our Mayor has charmed) in this morning's Chron, reproduced here for those amongst us who have concluded we can line the bottom of our birdcages without spending our coin supporting Mr Maslin's wilting organ:Bad Odour
Something smells in this city of Wanganui and I for one would really appreciate one big inquiry to get rid of the stink.
Some months ago, just after the local body elections, there was an article in our Wanganui Chronicle that was on similar lines as that in the Chronicle (October 10) from our present mayor who said that the city’s accounts had been left in a mess, by the previous mayor and council.
Last Friday (October 7) our long-standing CEO spent his last day in that prestigious office, then the first working day after that we get more headlines from Mayor Laws blaming bad book-keeping due to bad debts.
To me at least, this shouts of incompetence, an incompetence that was brushed off at the earlier incident.
If the incidences are as bad as Mayor Laws says then the district council should be off to the police to lay complaints of fraud and let the courts sort out the mess, if not then he is unsure of the facts and should keep his thoughts to himself.
If Mayor Laws is sure of his facts then court action should follow. I have always been suspect of the way our rate money has been spent.
As I see things all this smoke, lights and mirrors could be just something to deflect our thoughts away from the next time the rates are due to be struck as I reckon those who didn’t get a rates increase this time are due for a really big and nasty surprise next time.
R M Morris
Gonville
Exactly, Mr/Ms Morris. Exactly.
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12 comments:
Well, Wanganui, what did you expect: you elected a clown.
So are the short falls all untruths and smoke and mirrors?
Would we all still be picking on the mayor if she/he was a different person?
Or has the anti-Laws stigma created it's own set of smoke and mirrors to distract us from the focussing in on real truths?
Is Council focussing on the "real truths"? Mickey's obsession with the sound of his own spin can hardly be helping.
All these allegations of bad financial management, for example. There's no nice way to say this, Wanganui can't afford to pay top dollar for our accounts staff, but they have to cope with shifting political demands that would drive any business accountant crazy.
Then you get the needs of Wellington. Michael says we've been poorly served by the previous team, but I bet he's just oversimplifying. Try reading the LGA sometime.
Laws seems to be stepping back from his initial response of "it's stupid", regarding the LGA, incidently. The proof's in the pudding though: will Council have the courage to engage in open consultation next year for the next LTCCP, or will they pretend that referenda fit the bill?
If it wasn't for this mayor, no-one would be any the wiser. He's done exactly the job I elected him too and RM Morris suggesting that Dave Foster's incompetence is SFO material is probably stretching it. He was incompetent and each day this new council finds a new piece of shit sewpt under the council carpet. You'd do better of course - yeah right.
If it wasn't for this mayor, no-one would be any the wiser.
That's debateable, unless you mean that, were the old Council still in power we'd be none the wiser, then yes, you're probably right. But any new Mayor and Council with a soupcon of intelligence would have stumbled on the rather large pile steaming under said carpet.
The question isn't whether they'd have found it, it's whether they'd have handled it any better.
So you admit that the last council was crap then, LW?
That's progress!
Have we ever said otherwise?
I seem to recall Michael dismissing Diana Witchel's Listener comment rating his celebrity status up there (or down there) with Bob Clarkson's testicle.
It was, he rationalised, the sour grapes of someone he'd "dumped at university".
So, can we assume that RM Morris has also been provoked by having been left broken hearted by the Diva at some point in the distant past?
Or this morning's other perceptive letter writer, for that matter?
The world must be full of these people.
Laws didn't say he'd dumped her - I did - Thanks for the compliment tho'.
"The world must be full of these people. " ...
Yes, the mayors of Waitakere and Invercargill don't seem to be handling their presumed adolescent romantic rejection by the Diva very well, either.
I was there yesterday. Standing room only including a smattering of likely by-election candidates and plenty of "watchers" who talk to and about this blog. What makes you so obsessed about Carol, Micheal?
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