A shining light

There's a line supposedly used in a movie that's been used so often it's become something of a cliche. It's always said with an exaggerated overtone of menace... "It's quiet round here. Too quiet".

Radio Dead's long-suffering listeners have actually been treated as though their opinions were something other than a foil for a quick burst of abuse, then to be hung up on, followed by a lengthy, one-sided and self-important tirade. Viewers of a Game of Three Losers couldn't help but notice an altogether kindler, gentler programme on their screens this past week. Even this blog was notably lacking in the usual barrage of increasingly strident (and sometimes even ALL CAPITALS and MULTIPLE EXCLAMATION MARKS!!!) defences of Mickey's worst excesses.

We can only conclude that Mayor Michael Laws is absent from this fair city. Perhaps taking a crash course in ghetto-speak in preparation for campaigning on the streets of Manukau. "Props to yo mama, homeboy. Vote for DJ Mickey Mad. Respect y'all!" followed by a burning of rubber and an upraised finger as the Mayoral hot rod drops a patch. Given the usual excesses of gangsta-speak, one can only wonder what new adjective and noun combination may be brought forth to describe the Mayoress.

Wherever he may be, Mickey's absence has encouraged at least one councillor to venture that rarest of statements, that most endangered of expositions:

An independent thought!

(We really wish we were podcasting at this point, because that deserved some sort of fanfare. We'll pause for a moment while you fetch a comb and paper and create your own, Watchers.)

In fact, he's had a field day and decided to come up with two on the same day. Fortunately, 18 months of inactivity hasn't entirely atrophied his higher brain function, so Cr Randhir Dahya's latest Council Comment (printed in Midweek and reproduced - but for how long, we wonder? - on the Council's website) makes good sense.

First, he opines that the poor public attendance at Council meetings means not many are interested in local authority affairs. But rather than promote ill-informed and cynically manipulated referendumbs as the panacea, Cr Dahya ventures that the answer may be found in - open debate with councillors!!

(Actually, podcasting probably isn't a good idea. The fanfare button would be getting a workout by now).

Those hardy souls who brave the public gallery at Wanganui District Council meetings must sit on their hands, bite their tongues and - if Mickey's having a particularly bad day - cross their legs. Not for them the privilege accorded attendees at most other council meetings around NZ and overseas, of being able to ask questions of, and debate with, the Mayor and councillors. To be fair, that time is usually limited to about 15 minutes, and questioners are usually asked to inform the CEO of their intention to speak and to provide their question in advance so councillors aren't caught on the hop. But regardless of the restrictions, people can at least raise issues and speak their minds, and if the question can't be dealt with it is at least formally recorded and receives a response in due course.

The best Wanganui-ites can hope for is a smirk or a snarl from the Mayor, depending upon his mood, and a few poorly-chosen insults from Deputy Dotty, who no doubt feels her verbal fauxs pas should be kept from public view - a feeling shared, we can assure her, by Watchers who've cringed their way through one of her little homilies.

But back to Cr Dahya, whose rush of blood to the head - and possibly other organs - continues on with another radical idea - that reducing councillor numbers isn't good for democracy. Let's let him explain it in his own words:

I wonder how many of you know a councillor to whom you can talk to openly and frankly. Not many I believe. Well, the chance of you knowing one personally is about to be reduced because council has voted to reduce the number of councillors. While there were good reasons put forward by the publicly endorsed returned councillors to retain the status quo, we were out-voted by the Vision team whose main argument was the referendum result. I still believe it's an erosion of democracy, which in the end is not what councils are all about. My belief is that democracy is about having sufficient representation on council so your views are heard - and to those who think a smaller council will see a reduction in rate on their rates bill, don't hold your breath.

He also makes the valid point that while trumpeting a reduction in the number of elected - and thus directly accountable - people on Council, Mickey and his mates are in fact loading it up with quasi-councillors accountable to no-one but him. Vision's List MPs, in other words.

It is interesting that despite believing council numbers should be reduced, we have just added a Youth Council Committee which numbers 18 and have seconded up to five interested people to the Sport and Recreation Committee. This will bring the number to 11. Then of course the Heritage Committee has added an extra five members bringing their membership tally up to nine. Add to that the number of businesspeople appointed to the council's Holding Company and Wanganui Inc...

At that point he loses his nerve a little and concludes that having these unaccountable people running Wanganui means the town has "sufficient numbers of people running the district, not just six to 10 councillors, which is very reassuring". Quite how we get rid of them if we don't share his confidence is hopefully something he'll address in a future column.

Right now, the fragile bloom of independent thought needs to be nurtured and encouraged to grow, so we'll take it easy on Randhir as he takes his backbone and brain out for some much-needed exercise.

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