A view from above the trenches

From time to time a Watcher submits a contribution to the Cave which is somewhat longer and more involved than the usual comment. Often such missives contain insights that have eluded those of us whose sorry duty it is to monitor Mickey on a regular basis, because eventually sustained exposure to untruth and spin starts to inure even the most easily outraged amongst us.

Like the oft-repeated porky that Sue Pepperrell (and with her, Sam Hoyle) were merely in Wellington on a temporary sojourn and would be back in the bosom of Wanganui before we knew it. Now the replacement of the latter is acknowledged by Mickey without so much as a mention of the obvious need to replace the former - let alone an admission that promises of their fealty to Wanganui were an outright lie.

Keen-eyed commenters have already noticed this obvious, blatant bit of spin. Mickey knows we know. We know he knows we know. And so a strange kind of ennui sets in. The news that Mickey has been less than honest, or has procured someone else to be less than honest, becomes commonplace.

Thus it's the contributions of occasional Watchers which often bring a fresh perspective to events. The last such effort was well received, so - from a different Watcher this time - we present the latest contribution (slightly edited for brevity and grammar):

Good on LawsWatch for doing just that… watching Laws. It’s not the responsibility of the LawsWatch crew to figure out the solutions to city problems but to inform on the issues and be responsible enough to give their views and recommendations. I elected not comment on the "Kept in the dark again" post because its contents convey facts that all responsible citizens should learn.

However, it would seem that mayor Laws' "victory" in the Code of Conduct investigation has been a body blow that knocked the wind out of some of the citizens of Wanganui in calling him to account. When the litigants are poorly represented and up against a biased Wanganui District Council, naturally the ruling would have been against the them.

Next time, get better legal representation - one that can keep a calm head when dealing with mayor Laws' immature antics. One who keeps in mind that "sticks and stones may break my bones, but your words will never hurt me"; concentrates on the case at hand; does their legal "homework", and offers to do some for free; and "burns the midnight oil" doing legal work for the sake of winning for their clients.

It only took me three hours to find a flaw in that case that would have turned the tables in favour of the complainants. There was a point in the process prior to the Council’s ruling that the complainants' counsel did not take up.

On to the most current LawsWatch post, "On the rocks". This raises a barrage of issues: Why now? And why wasn’t it addressed long before? How much is this going to cost the city again? Would this make the "Heart of Wanganui" project even less affordable than at present? And why does the port matter motivate Mayor Laws and the Wanganui Council into kowtowing to special interest group (port users)?

Regarding the legal action over the port, we are informed that, "in 1998 the then Wanganui Council transferred the management of the port assets to a private company - Ocean Terminals Ltd. - by way of a perpetual lease". However, Mayor Laws and the Wanganui Council fail to indicate the reasons why the then Council made that transfer, nor have they disclosed to the public the conditions of the perpetual lease.

Laws and the Council are characterised as "fighting a legal uphill battle". This "uphill battle" is going to cost money and I’m more than certain that Laws and the Council are not going to reach into their own pockets or purses to pay the legal expenses. I suspect that instead, they are hoping to find a legal loophole big enough to drive a truck through in order to regain Council control of the port again, to the benefit of a special interest group of port users rather than Wanganui as a whole.

Management comes with responsibility and funding to maintain port operations. If there is no loophole, then Laws and the Council may find fault in regards to the conditions of the lease, but it will have to be vast departure from the lease conditions to justify the lease being nullified and the relinquishment of control back to the Wanganui Council.

The pitiful thing about this matter is that Laws is using the lives of the people as leverage under the guise of launching the Coastguard rescue boat being main issue. Why only now is this matter being addressed? Who is to be held responsible for this shortcoming? The Coastguard... for not speaking up? Mayor Laws… for ignoring the dilemma till it suited him? The Wanganui Council… for also ignoring it? Wanganui citizens… for not speaking up?

I would liked to have seen the headlines if someone had drowned because the Coastguard was impeded from doing their job properly as a result of neglect from the Mayor and Council. Yes, River City Port Ltd is not innocent either. But in this matter, two wrongs don’t make a right.
Isn't it the responsibility of a mayor to protect his citizens? Surely, this matter involving the Coastguard’s inability to perform their rescue operations properly did not need to be addressed this late by pointing fingers at the Port company's alleged operations "mismanagement".

Unless Laws has had an almost a 3 year long lapse of reasoning, thinking no one will drown until he takes control of the port, it’s obvious that this matter should have been rectified a long time ago.

In light of all this, how much more money is this going to cost the city? And how long has it been since dredging was done while Mayor Laws has been in office? Not only are Laws and the Wanganui Council "a day late and a dollar short" in their endeavors, but they seem intent on illustrating their delusions of grandeur by sensationalising in the Wanganui Chronicle the great job they're supposed to be doing.

Similarly, Mayor Laws and the Wanganui Council both know that this "Heart of Wanganui" project is not financially feasible for a city that is in great debt. It is not practical to imagine that it can be accomplished as a legacy for a one-term mayor. You finish paying off the completion of one project before you start the other. And the first priority is, get the city infrastructure "up to par" and stabilise the city’s financial situation.

Furthermore, this matter of the Wanganui District Heath Board. This didn’t get this much attention until the ACT party leader, Rodney Hide, exposed the debacle months ago and it has gained momentum ever since, before Laws took the opportunity to "ride the wave" to have the matter addressed.

While all this was going on prior to Mr Hide coming to Wanganui, why didn’t Mayor Laws raise the flag by going to Parliament to address the matter much earlier? Why so late in the game did he finally make an effort amongst all the publicity? This is yet another example of taking corrective action instead of preventative action. And once again putting lives at stake.

Clearly, in having the Wanganui Chronicle publish all the good he has supposedly done, Mayor Laws is attempting to re-write history and deflect attention from these very serious oversights which have occurred during his term. Just as when he became a lame duck MP and resigned from Parliament, then tried to portray it as a noble act. This is what any politician would do in similar circumstances. All politicians, here and even in the United States, play this game. However any reasonable person would find the actions of Mayor Laws and the Wanganui Council in many important matters as being unacceptable, period.

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