An increase in the quantum of postings

As the Diva constantly reminds us, the Long Term Council Community Plan (LTCCP) is a crucial document. While he bemoans having to actually be accountable to anyone for planning what baubles he wants to spend money on in future, he he does acknowledge its importance as a blueprint for rates and expenditure (and thus service levels) for the next ten years.

"How we are supposed to predict events 10 years out is a bit beyond me, but we are making an attempt," the Diva assured anxious ratepayers back in February. "However, we are mandated to carry out this planning, so we are taking it seriously. Once the process is complete, we will all... sigh with relief." We're willing to wager that if the chairman of a company in which you had a substantial investment issued a report to shareholders saying "Gosh, expecting us to plan for the next ten years is a bit much. We'll be glad when it's over (and we can all get back to playing golf)" you'd be on the phone to your broker yelling "Sell, sell sell!!"

Of course, with such steady and reassuring hands on the financial tiller, we don't need to know the messy details like actual figures. Goodness no. When Nickie, Muzza, Dotty and Mickey cast their eyes over a balance sheet with lots of zeroes, they instantly know what's wrong and what needs to be done. Which probably amounts to "ignore it and it'll go away", "give it a dishwasher", "giggle inanely" and "throw a massive tantrum and blame someone else" respectively.

One group who are going to find out exactly what the bottom line is are Council staff. Back in February, in a press release entitled "Council must tell the truth & take responsibility for our actions" (and you think the Diva has no sense of humour!!) he flagged "a drop in the quantum amount of staff salaries".

If he achieves nothing else, he's added a new phrase to the growing lexicon for "sacking people for no reason other than that we can't figure out how else to save the sinking ship". Soon Telecom executives will no longer speak (over long lunches of lobster and champagne) of "downsizing" superfluous lackeys such as technicians and installers and people who answer faults calls, but of "a drop in the quantum amount of staff salaries".

It may well be, as some commenters opine, that staff cutbacks are both inevitable and positive. Given that the majority of staff positions exist to provide services to ratepayers, we'd be a little more cautious in our assessment. But we - and you, and anyone else not sat round the Council table and thus seemingly blessed with omnipotent foresight - simply don't know. But we can surmise that one of the figures they're not too keen on getting into the public domain is how much provision has been made for redundancies.

Appparently the Audit Office is due to respond this Friday to the Top Secret draft LTCCP. There seems to be some apprehension at Guyton St about this, especially the Auditor General's possible reaction to Council's subsequent resolution to not have a balanced budget. Whatever it is, we await the Diva's full and unvarnished disclosure. After all, Council must tell the truth and take responsibility for their actions. Right, Mickey?

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The (ratepayer) hustle

Idle Sunday afternoon musings at the Cave have devised a plausible answer for this whole Splash Centre mess. We realise now that the Diva wanted to demonstrate his fleet footwork to the producers of Dancing with the Stars who, given the shallow celebrity pool in NZ, must now be scanning lists of people who once had a walk-on part in Close to Home.

Fortunately for the Diva he's got people like Nickie Higgie on the judging panel. Forwarded a lucid, reasonable and well-thought-out email from a concerned Watcher, who pleaded with LawsWatch to ask Cr Higgie whether she had any concern at all for the arts in Wanganui, Nickie shot back with "I haven't read anything below, and won't be". Way to answer to constituents Nickie, but pretty much the lickspittle, craven performance we'd warned the Watcher they were likely to get. Then again, perhaps we're being harsh - there were some awfully big words in that email.

And then there's Mr Maslin, whose scorecard - at least when it comes to the Diva's dancing - seems to have only "10" on it. Perhaps he's hoping he won't be a wallflower at the next round of Vision candidate selections and will be asked to dance with the Diva. Just don't expect to lead.

While we at the Cave wait for those who are paid to serve the voters and readers to wake up and smell the chlorine, Watchers have been doing a little probing. However unlike Leisure Suit Larry Mitchell, the bean counter from Puhoi, we won't wrap up the results up in a $44,000 tome illustrated with pictures of the mayor and council and peppered with quotes from the Diva.

The first question we ask is from where did the recommendation in Keith Hindson's report that the council underwrite the entire project come? Especially remembering that it continues to blow out by a daily amount exceeding even Larry Mitchell's consulting fee. It doesn't sound like the sort of thing we've come to expect from Cautious Keith, nor from the level headed Barbara Bullock, chair of the Working Party.

Of course when the mayor gave birth to the genetically challenged Working Party he had co-parenting rights with his buddy Graeme Taylor and was also in throes of infatuation with his other good buddy John Unsworth. GK got to chair the Working Party to get the project up and running, while JU was left to come up with the readies on the Fundraising Committee. Mickey promised he would spread his affections and "talents" between both families. Then-CEO and marriage counsellor Colin Whitlock thought that was a pretty good arrangement.

Then GK walked out on the marriage and the Working Party was put up for adoption. Cr Barbara Bullock found herself loco in parentis while Mickey wooed sports chick Baker-Hogan.

That left the new mother in the midst of a dysfunctional mixed family trying to focus on getting the costings and design messes sorted and mapping out a sensible series of options.

Poppa Unsworth was never home, driving round with his pals Marty Lindsay et al, wooing car dealers for a free RAV to raffle in an attempt to come up with some of the $1.5 million shortfall.

Then somehow at least three of the Unworth gang, known as the street bullies, came to play with the Bullock brood. Could that be why the Hindson-Bullock recommendations morphed into something that sounded like the Fundraising Committee's wish list?

With that sort of cross-pollination it was never going to work the way Colin Whitlock predicted. Poppa Unsworth and Uncle Michael wanted as much dough as they could get (without actually having to work for it) and bugger the ratepayers, while Momma Bullock was charged with protecting the ratepayers by ensuring the thing didn't spin out of control.

Now the neighbours are whispering over the fence that Momma Bullock has been served with divorce papers and Uncle Michael is wondering what to do next.

Where is the family GP, Dr Warburton, in all this, we ask? Perhaps it's time for him to prescribe a dose of fiscal reality and see what he can do to revive the project. Oh, and he might like to focus on diagnosing the seriousness of the increased running costs and figuring out just what the ratepayers can afford during the life of the project.

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Pass the bananas, Dotty

A recent commenter noted:

Dotty spins and spins... like anyone who has ventured out of town recently, [she would have] got hit with a barrage of anti-Laws comment -- unless of course out of town for her was the chimps tea party at Wellington Zoo. But then she'd hardly be able to tell the difference from the Vision caucus anyway...

In the interests of maintaining the unparalleled accuracy of LawsWatch, we'd point out that the chimps' tea party at Wellington Zoo has long since ceased to occur.

It was felt that subjecting poor captive simians to the scrutiny of the general public just so that said public could chortle at the mess they (the chimps) were making of things was somewhat cruel.

And there dear readers, you have your explanation as to why Council went into public excluded to discuss the Splash Centre funding.

The growing alarm around the township as people begin to realise that they're going to have to pay - and pay handsomely - for the shiny baubles diVision offered them in the referendum (well, we did portray Mickey as Bad Santa back in December) suggests that Councillors may soon wish to exclude themselves from the public on a semi-permanent basis. And to be fair to the Diva, and as other commenters have pointed out, it is the entire Council who are now responsible. They may have been led to the cliff edge by the Mayor, but in opting to go into a closed-door session and not bring the public into their confidence they have all - each and every single one of them - opted to jump.

Other commenters have unloaded a whole paddling pool full of red herrings into the debate, asking LawsWatch and other commenters why they "don't want the Splash extension". We want a Splash extension. We also quite fancy a new Maserati. The question is whether we can afford one, and if we can't, whether we should be forced to pay for it anyway - especially if not being told the truth by the person racking up the bill.

But rather than write a lengthy post staing the bleedin' obvious, we'll take the slackers way out and merely highlight this comment from Rob Vinsen, which does a pretty good job of explaining the point (edited for brevity - you're welcome to read the entire comment on the previous post):

I believe that the extension of the Splash Centre is the most important project that Council is currently undertaking... Yes, the community needs this facility, but they should know and accept that it will come with a significant cost.

The Mayor refuses to mention that the estimated increase (and this was based on the original cost and prior to borrowing) in the Community Facilities rate will be at least $57 pa per ratepayer, and that running costs will increase by more than $500,000 pa. There are ample examples in other cities where the cost of running their aquatic facility is becoming politically unpopular.

Yesterday's meeting was a travesty of the democratic process - the Splash Centre item was pulled from the agenda to be discussed in secret. "Commercial Sensitivity" was the reason put forward by His Worship. Absolute lies- no Councillor (not even the Vision ones) knew this was going to happen. Even Denis McGowan (the pool designer) who I spoke to said "Well, that's the shortest meeting I've ever been to, I've been told to go home".

Yesterday's exhibition was symptomatic of the lack of public information and manner the whole Splash Centre debate has been handled by the Council powerbrokers - including the dodgy referendum. If the Council dont tell the ratepayers what it's going to cost them, then at some stage it will end in tears - and that could jeopardise this much needed facility.That is my major concern.

That seems a perfectly reasonable argument to us here at the LawsWatch cave. We wonder whether the Diva and his supporter(s) can rebut it without red herring references to trams, previous elections, or anything else not germane to the point he makes. But then again, with the Diva, everything is personal. Take this response to Vinsen's comment:

...surely the mayor's mob read these postings so haven't you just done the tram project a grave disservice in dissing the same council you need to get funding & support. Own goal, mate.

The message: stop criticising the Mayor on LawsWatch if you want Council support for the tram project. Interesting way to run a democratic institution. Mind you, it's deja vue all over again. It was back in 1996 that political commentator Russell Brown noted:

Speaking of nauseating, Michael Laws is back - and behaving like a silent killer. It was made official when he was named as a "special advisor" to Winston Peters. But neither Laws nor that friend of openness and honesty, Winston, would say exactly what it was that Laws was doing. Actually, it seems pretty clear that he is settling a few scores to start with...

Already, it's goodbye to the spokesmanships of Terry Heffernan and Rex Widerstrom. The first is no great loss, but Widerstrom seems like a decent bloke, has been with the party almost since its foundation and has been putting in a lot of work. He just wasn't a friend of Laws, is all. And if you're not a friend of Michael Laws, you die.

Got that, Rob? If you're not a friend of Michael Laws, you (or your projects, no matter what their intrinsic merit) die. The way to get ahead in Wanganui these days is to shut up, go along, keep your head down, and hope for Mayoral patronage.

Update (4.25 pm): A last-minute comment added to the previous post is worth repeating lest it's missed by many:

I wonder how people would respond to clearing our debt as one of the referendumb options?

Here in the Cave, our response was a round of brow-smiting and "Why didn't we think of that?". Of course - elegantly simple when you think about it. Well, readers?

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Gurgles from Guyton Street

A (remarkably well informed) anonymous commenter notes:

It's all around Council. The Foundation has donated the $1 million. Good on them and good on the mayor for asking them. The Splash Centre extension is suddenly very affordable.

Indeed it has. But it's not quite as clear cut as the gloating from Guyton Street would have you believe, gentle readers - the Diva won't be walking across the pool when it's opened after all.

First up, some background. The Whanganui Community Foundation's focus is on families from low socio-economic demographics, with 80 to 90 percent of their grants going in that direction, a lot for schools initiatives.

They see the Splash Centre as a family oriented place so it fits their philosophy. In fact the Centre has been under consideration for some time (not just since the Diva and Unsworth turned up cap-in-hand yesterday).

The Foundation has operated under budget last two years so the $1 million isn't going to break the bank. The last annual report for 2004-05 shows total donations for year were $1,090,745 (including $250,000 set aside for the Sarjeant extension but not required) so the Foundation came in under the $1.4 million budget. Perhaps as well as a cheque, the Board could give Mickey some lessons about living within one's means.

Since the Foundation's inception it has given $20 million to various causes - earnings on the amount given when the Wanganui Savings Bank was wound up along with other trustee savings banks.

But what's not being made clear in all the hoopla is that it isn't a no strings $1 million handout to a triumphant Mayor. In fact it's half that.

• $500,000 is a straight donation.
• $300,000 is tagged to matching community donations, so John Unsworth still needs that bake sale.
• $200,000 won't go to the pool per se, but rather will be used to help disadvantaged families (region-wide) access the centre.

So we have a current FEC (final estimate of cost) of $5,331,875. Up till yesterday external funding sat at $525,928. Thanks to the generosity of the Foundation it now totals $1,025,928 with another $300,000 possible if Pool Czar Unsworth actually does his job and raises some money. Assuming he does and thus the Foundation's conditional grant kicks in, that adds $600,000 and leaves $3,705,947 to be found.

Of that, Council has committed $2,500,000 leaving a shortfall of $1,205,947. But let's not forget that costs are escalting by between $1,300 and $1,460 a day (depending on whether or not the hydroslide stays). So by the end of March - and assuming a best-case scenario - the shortfall will be $1,218,947. By the end of April, $1,257,947. And by the end of 2006, $1,575,147... and so on.

As fast as they fill the pool with money, it leaks out.

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Physics for beginners

It seems the proverbial is headed for the fan at a blistering speed as the Diva's unplanned profligacy with other people's money makes it onto the Strategy Committee agenda for this Thursday.

After admiring all those nice shiny new votes which referendumbs gave the diVisionites to play with, Councillors are now finding they come with a price tag - one that Wanganui is going to struggle to pay.

Once again it's fallen to Keith Hindson to deliver the bad news on the Splash Centre. With the Diva's propensity to shoot the messenger, we'd imagine the Sits Vac columns are regular reading in the Hindson household. And now, Watchers, let's delve into financial management, Mickey (Mouse) style. According to Hindson:

External funding for the project currently sits at $525,928. The funding includes the Powerco Trust’s $500,000 and the Toyota raffle.

Ah yes, the raffle. Staggeringly, the only cash raised by John Unsworth and his cronies. Who was it that said back in September that he’d put his name down for fundraising to help out the poor country hicks? Oh, that's right - the Diva.

An application has been made to the Whanganui Community Foundation for $1 million.

That must have left a particularly bitter taste in the Mayoral mouth. After all, he's long had it in for the WCF and particularly the CEO Judith Timpany, a respected, competent woman with an admirable record of contributing to volunteering in Wanganui and beyond. Savour the irony, Watchers, as the Diva now begs the Foundation for cool $1 million to perhaps prolong the travel time of said excrement to fan.

The Lotteries Trust Board advises it only funds up to $10,000 for capital projects.

Whoopsie. Whose job was it to check these things before embarking on grandiose schemes? Not, surely, one of the new boy network? Not when everything is the fault of the old boy network, according to no less an authority than the Mayor himself, in his latest e-column (see post below).

As of December 2005 the FEC (LW: final estimate of cost) was $5,331,875.

So why has it taken till end of March 2006 for this gem to appear on an agenda? Anything to do with making things look rosy till after the plebs have voted, perchance. Apparently Dotty (chair of Strategy) tried to kick it into touch.

Hindson recommends that the council underwrites the entire $5,300,000. Well, what else could he do? Tell the Diva he'd made a giant mistake and he now had to break his promise to build this shining testament to his Mayoral magnificence? Not if he wanted any hope of keeping his job he wouldn't.

One would expect Unsworth to come in for a Mayoral spray but we're not holding our breath thanks to his business connections with Dotty's husband, making him firmly one of the new boys.

The funding group continues to fundraise and reimburse the council the shortfall currently anticipated at $3,163,000 within two years.

Let's see... that's $4332.88 a day. And they'll have to work Sundays.

Hindson then suggests that to reduce the upfront capital cost, the hydroslide could be dropped (that was on the table back in September) saving $655,000 for a total cost of $4,676,875.

But even then the cost escalation is already $130,000 and will increase by at least $1,300 a day thereafter. If the hydroslide stays, the daily escalation will be at least $1460 per day. So off you go, John... better start baking cakes and clearing out the garage for one huge sale.

Therefore the council needs to either identify further deletions to the project or commence work as soon as possible. This carries the risk that the community will not be supportive of a scaled back design.

Yes, and the risk that a duped populace might begin constructing a guillotine in Guyton Street, though Hindson wisely eschews mention of that particular fallout.

But he saves the real clincher till last. Winding up for the pitch, he lets go the excrement in the direction of the fan:

There is a real risk that the Council will have to fund the entire project.

Oh, and since that pesky LTCCP only identifes a budget of $2.5 million over two years, council "could be required to undertake the special consultative procedure"... in other words, to seek the public's opinion on just what they think of this almighty mess. That will be fun.

Drawing on our renowned powers of prediction, allow LawsWatch to suggest that the powers that be might be considering, say, the impost of a special rate on the long-suffering backs of Wanganuites (perhaps called a cultural facilities rate so the hoi polloi don't think it has anything to do with Mickey's excremental swimming pool outing).

But of course that would hardly wash with such an informed and interested electorate coming so soon after a buy-election in which the visionary candidate (nor anyone else for that matter) made no mention of such an intolerable burden... but then again...

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In keeping with...

...the Chron's idea of newsworthiness. Today it's people who weren't there for the Australian cyclone. Tomorrow it's...

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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The answer is blowin' in the wind

We've waited and waited and waited some more... months, in fact... after first hearing of this story, first in deference to the fact that the informant who provided it was also helping Sean Hoskins write a piece for the Chronicle and asked that - just this once - LawsWatch not scoop Mr Maslin's increasingly incoherent organ. Second, because we wanted to give Cr Ray Stevens the freedom to act without being accused of being in some way an agent of the blog and those supposedly behind it at the time.

But two months after we (along with a number of other people) first heard the story - still nothing in the Chron. And with Sean's departure, nor is there ever likely to be. Now a commenter has reminded us of the issue:

Why haven't the Chronicle published Herr Laws' emailed threats against Cr. Ray Stevens, I wonder. Laws threatened Stevens with Code of Conduct action. Ray was telling everyone who would listen. I wonder why he suddenly went quiet...

Now one man's threat is another's bombastic, overbearing, dictatorial, antidemocratic (Enough adjectives... Ed.) chest beating. But the facts as we know them are these. On January 11, Ray Stevens somehow managed to slip through the Chron's censors, probably because the editor was on holiday and no one else was available to pop round to Guyton St for instructions from the Spin Fairy.

The letter wasn't exactly supportive of the Mayor, especially the nonsense he'd been spouting at the time about Wanganui Gas. (Steven Palmer had a similar letter published, and hence he got slagged off in the ecol-i e-newsletter the following day).

The Diva then apparently threatened Cr Stevens with a code of conduct complaint, thus proving once and for all that he has no sense of either irony or shame. Watchers all over Wanganui were breaking their ribs laughing about this, and one thought to call Sean Hoskins, who called Stevens, who gave him the story.

While in any other town those events would be extraordinary enough, in present day Lawsville they're pretty much run-of-the-mill. Where things really start getting extraordinary is what happened next.

When another Watcher called Sean that afternoon to check on the progress of the story, our intrepid journalist started blustering about some other email correspondence with the Diva that had been forwarded to him by someone calling himself Zimmerman in which he (Zimmerman) was rude about the mayor, and the mayor was apparently rude about him.

Sean admitted he figured Zimmerman probably wasn't real (our Sean mightn't have figured out all the machinations of Guyton Street, but he knows his Bob Dylan). But said he was going to sit on the Stevens story anyway till he could confirm or otherwise the existence of this Zimmerman.

The now incredulous Watcher asked what on earth Zimmerman had to do with Stevens. It was obvious, at least to the newshounds at the Chron - they both had received unfortunate responses from the Diva.

So... just so we're familiar with Mr Maslin's newsgathering modus operandi...

1. Link together two unrelated stories, one of which is almost certainly false, on the flimsiest of threads.
2. Then hold back publication of one story till you can prove the veracity of the probably false one (a logic puzzle which could keep one busy for hours... oh wait, that was the point).
3. If step 2 fails, publish neither.

Then later in the piece, Stevens allegedly asked Sean to hold off till his lawyer checked the Mayor's message for defamation. And whilst any other news organisation would have said "no way, you gave us an interview of your own free will and we're running with the story, sorry", the Chron evidently obliged.

Watchers have been waiting... and waiting... for this legal opinion to come through and for Cr Stevens to confirm what happens next. But we're beginning to think this story is much like the Mayor's credibility - gone, never to return.

So just what is happening here?

What was the content of the Mayor's email to Cr Stevens?

Why hasn't the Chron run the story?

Why hasn't Cr Stevens pursued the matter? Even if the email isn't defamatory, if it's contents are as reported there are still questions to be asked about the Diva's methods of attempting to silence his critics on Council.

Oh... and who is Mr Zimmerman and how'd he know to gather together a collection of titillating emails right when Sean needed to be distracted from the Stevens story?

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Stop them before they complain again!!

A virulent wave of some sort of summer flu has ravaged the LawsWatch cave this past week or so. We suspect the Mayor of putting something in the gin.

Then again, it could have been the shock of finding ourselves in agreement with the Diva for the second time this year, and it's only March.

Interviewer: "Is there such a thing as a typical Dog (Mobster)?"
Mob member: "Rape, kill and plunder! (Laughs) A typical Dog? To live like a Dog for the rest of your life and take all, and do all, that comes with it. And don't get stood on by no outsider."
Interviewer: "The Mongrel Mob are associated with a lot of violence. Do you ever worry about the spiritual backlash of murdering, raping or maiming somebody?"
Mob member: "If you don't care about anything outside the Mob then you don't have any guilty feelings or anything."
Later in the interview:
"We hate everybody and f**k, I mean everybody!"
"They should have stopped us from the day we started."

Quote from a interview with Harry Tam, Dunedin Mob spokesman, which you can read for yourselves in Staunch: Inside the Gangs by Bill Payne.

Mr Tam, of course, went on to land a job as senior policy analyst with the Corrections Department. Then, in pleading not guilty to an assault on his wife in 1994 where he beat her in front of their children, he claimed she'd consented to being assaulted.

There can be little doubt that an organisation with such a philosophy (and the Mongrels aren't the only ones who share it, of course) has any right to go about its "business" in Wanganui, or anywhere else. Or that anyone who stands up to thuggery, be they a public figure or private individual, places themselves at risk of reprisal and can therefore be said to be courageous.

Unless, of course, such opposition was merely ill-considered publicity seeking. We really do hope it's not - that it's an unusually principled stand from the usually unprincipled Diva.

But since one of the few groups who could possibly exercise any positive influence on such groups are local kaumatua and kuia, this is hardly the best time to be scoffing at the legitimate concerns of local iwi over the "H" issue - unless every utterance is measured not against what's best for the community but what will generate the largest headlines in the next day's Chron.

The chance to unite the community over one issue is being lost by posturing over another. We've previously advocated working toward a compromise so won't bore you with it again here. Rather than make deliberately inflammatory statements such as advocating Ken Mair drop his complaint to the Human Rights Commission and "spent time trying to convince gangs in Wanganui to stop selling P and cannabis in our community", the Mayor could choose to actually sit down with local Maori and enlist their help on such issues. But that's not going to happen when the two sides are trading slogans over the "H".

As a commenter wryly noted, Ken Mair's complaint, and the Diva's reaction, will do no harm in terms of their standing with their respective core support base. While Mr Mair is free to pursue his own ends, appealing to the redneck vote isn't what the Mayoralty is about - or least not what it's meant to be about.

It's to be hoped that two issues of grave importance to the people of Wanganui - the preservation of Te Reo Maori and the eradication, or at least neutering, of local gangs - don't get lost in the spin blitz from both sides.

Meanwhile, in an alternative reality, a Skinhead band has stolen the Mongrel Mob's symbolism. Perhaps if everyone clubbed together they could pop over to England and sort them out. It'd have to be one way, of course, due to lack of funds.

P.S. July 24 - 30 is Maori Language Week. That offers Wanganui a chance to show it does respect Te Reo Maori. We wonder what events are planned?

P.P.S. A kind commenter notes, inter alia:

I've noted some of the comments from people who are frustrated that the once daily postings are still not happening. That is probably because only a very few people are doing all the work and they've had a gutsfull trying to be the conscience of this town...

They fought the good fight and no-one stood beside them. The mayor and his mates picked them off one by one and where was the protest?... Wanganui doesn't deserve me, the arts activists or LW.

You're right, anonymous. When people were being personally vilified - often in the most ugly manner imaginable - for nothing more than holding an opinion contrary to the Mayor, there was a deafening silence. Perhaps Wanganui doesn't deserve LawsWatch. But one thing is obvious - the Mayor sure as hell does.

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...and He taketh away

We've always suspected the Diva of having a messianic complex. So it's little wonder that not only does the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, but that Mickey is having a go too.

Not only are staff cuts on the agenda (and commenters are right, these should come as a surprise to no one, least of all the staff themselves) but cuts to services as well.

Oh, and a potential seven percent rates rise "just to stand still".

And whose fault is all this?

Surely not the Visionites, who rode to power on the back of promises of "nil" rates rises and improvements to services like gleaming new swimming pool extensions? Capping expenditure while increasing services has never been managed by any administration at any level anywhere, but that didn't stop the Diva. And to his credit, he managed to fool enough of the people enough of the time to get elected.

While lopping a few public servants off at the knees was always clearly on the agenda, Watchers can't remember the words "rates rises" let alone "borrowing" being used by the Diva's dwarves -- not even during the recent buy-election.

But they hadn't been in office a year when their hands went into the cookie jar and emerged with a $2.4 million loan. And now Wanganui-ites are being softened up for a rates rise which was always inevitable in a town which had essentially been left to stagnate in many respects.

No one likes a rates rise, but an honest politician would have put their cards on the table, presenting a list of unavoidable expenses (like, say, stormwater) and optional expenses (like, say, pool extensions) complete with budgets and allowed people to make intelligent decisions about what they wanted and how much they were prepared to pay to get it.

Instead, voters were led to believe that they could have a brand spanking new swimming pool and a redeveloped town centre (but not an art gallery that even met health and safety requirements) without having to fork across an extra cent in rates.

"Eey oop," they said, in that charmingly bucolic way they have, "if anyone's that clever with money, they'll get my vote! Why, I'll send the missus up Guyton Street to ask that clever bloke how she can serve t-bone steak every night without me having to give her any more housekeeping!".

According to the Diva this is everyone's fault but his, of course, telling the Chronic it was all down to "new audit requirements" and "some [items] missed out in the last [LTCCP] plan" and confirming "cuts to some council services and to staff numbers".

When even a casual observer of Wanganui's finances pre-Vision could see that the town was facing ongoing infrastructure costs such as stormwater separation and the wastewater treatment plant, let alone the costs of any wishlist projects such as the Heart or the Splash Centre, to now claim that the imminent belt-tightening has somehow snuck up on Council means one of two things. Either Vision was stupid, or they were dishonest.

It's not their fault they're now faced with having to make staff redundant, cut services, raise rates, or some combination of all three. It's not their fault they couldn't deliver increased services and infrastructure without increasing the rates burden and / or cutting back in other areas. No one could have been expected to achieve those things.

The point is, though, that no one else promised to, and got themselves elected on the basis of that promise.

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