The Emperor's striptease begins

"Video killed the radio star" predicted the Buggles back in 1979. Then later someone anticipated the effect of LawsWatch upon the Diva's less-than-stellar television efforts and came up with "Internet killed the video star".

As an astute Watcher noted, it's radio ratings time at present, so expect an increase in ranting from Guyton Street as Mr 1.5 Percent attempts to boost his ratings with a series of intemperate comments about... well, anyone and anything judging by past performance.

But the talk round Wanganui of late is about just who killed the Arts Festival. Festival Director Yvonne O'Connor told the Chron this was due to "a lack of community support and from the Wanganui District Council". The Festival had been running successfully since 1998 but suddenly found itself unviable under the present administration. So 18 months of planning and a tremendous amount of work by hundreds of volunteers across dozens of planned events goes down the drain for want of $9,000 - the difference between the $19,000 the organisers asked for from Council and the $10,000 they decided to give (in comparison to $15,000 in previous years).

We'd been under the impression that the strategy was to make Wanganui some sort of "events city" (as opposed to a non-event city) but it appears that unless the event offers naming and spotlight rights to the Diva it's not going to happen. The Arts Festival follows, of course, in the footsteps of the Film Festival - vibrant and viable to cocked-up and cancelled within the space of a year.

Why this sudden penury? Look no further than the latest e-coli e-column from the Mayor, headed "Is the money there?". The title alone is a worry.

After alleging that the Sarjeant Gallery extension was based upon "some patently false information and some irregular accounting" (have the police been called? the SFO? If not, why not?) the Diva reveals that yet another project is in financial deep water without a paddle - this time the riverfront.

Again he lambasts person or persons unnamed for "slack internal and political controls that used to exist". Surely this was under Colin Whitlock, the same man praised by Mickey upon his retirement and hired to write a book. Again, if things were truly that bad, oughtn't there to be an independent investigation?

So is this too to be dumped? Apparently not. "Readers will be aware that the riverfront development polled a healthy second in last year's capital works referendum, and that council committed itself to the project as a consequence", the Diva reminds us. That's the problem when no one - not even the proponents of a referendum - have the foggiest idea what anything will cost and use it merely as a populist device.

So Council is now faced with admitting the referendumb process is flawed and that Wanganui simply can't afford these projects - especially when, for want of $9,000, a significant community activity can be allowed to collapse - or going ahead with something, anything, come hell or high water.

The project will now be managed by a working party consisting of Crs Sue Westwood, Dot McKinnon, Murray Lindsay and the Diva. This lot will, he says, "generally introduce a hitherto absent professionalism". Riiiiiight. We'll watch this one with interest.

Meanwhile, also laying on the mortuary slab wired up to the strange looking machine awaiting a thunderstorm is the Splash Centre Extension.

Professor Mickeystein won't let this one die either, despite being forced to admit that the funding situation looks sicker than ever. "The project price has now risen from $4.5 million to $5.3 million due to the horrendous construction inflation index," a shocked Mayor reveals. Pity he didn't take notes from the several LawsWatch commenters who advised him of exactly that months ago.

But wait - there's more "In addition, a funding source that had been relied upon to donate substantially – the Lottery Grants Board – has apparently informed our working party that the project does not fit their funding definitions. In short, the project is about $2 million short – and that's after council's contribution of $2.5 million."

So... no one thought to check with the Lotteries Board beforehand? For instance, before offering this populist bauble to ratepayers with no costings attached?

"Council will need to find funding sources to bridge that shortfall. And quick. Every day we delay is a day that the cost gets greater". Do we detect a rising note of panic, Mickey?

Seems the Whanganui Community Foundation is going to be stood over to ensure it "plays a prominent role" (also known as "bails us out"). The Diva's rationale for this is that "its very name suggests that it exists for the sole purpose of funding community initiatives". On that basis, the Council's very name suggests it should take council from those who know what they're talking about but we all know that's never going to happen.

As the Diva desperately notes, "the people of Wanganui have clearly demonstrated that the Splash extension is their #1 initiative". Indeed they have, and they're now deflating their paddling pools and eagerly looking forward to next summer, when they can belly flop right into the middle of Mickey's Memorial Pool.

How ironic that the very people who fell hook, line and sinker (or rather snorkel, flipper and inflatable toy) for the Diva's uncosted populist nonsense are now the very people who may succeed where others have failed - in demonstrating to Wanganui that self-serving populism and calculated division can never successfully co-exist with fiscal responsibility. Or in a happy community.

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