Former Northland Port Corporation chairman Mike Daniel is urging the public not to back a targeted rate to pay for the Northland rescue chopper until the helicopter's books have been fully opened to the public.
The Northland Regional Council is looking at introducing a targeted rate of $8.56 per household throughout the region for the life-saving service.
This would raise about $675,000 a year to help fund the Northland Emergency Services Trust (NEST), which runs the chopper,
The rate is in the NRC's Long Term Council Community Plan (LTCCP) which sets out its spending for the next 10 years and is open for public submissions till May 8.
NEST chairman and regional councillor John Bain said for commercial reasons no rescue chopper service fully opened its books to the public.
However, Mr Bain said NEST's accountant and chief executive Pete Turnbull had given the NRC full access to the books to do due diligence.
But Mr Daniel, who resigned from his role at the helm of the Port Corp last month after 10 years in charge, said there were a number of disquieting issues surrounding the plan.
Mr Daniel left the Port Corp before its annual meeting because he was unhappy with the way the company's major shareholder - the regional council - was running the business.
And he says in his submission to the LTCCP that the NRC is being hasty in proposing the targeted rate.
"With respect, I am disappointed in NRC's haste in recommending ratepayer funding when perhaps a little preliminary due diligence could have revealed opportunity from cost rationalisation at NEST, with no reduction in the current level of emergency services," Mr Daniel said.
He said there was nothing in the LTCCP to show the regional council had looked at NEST's books to see if there was "any fat" that could be trimmed without the need for a ratepayer bailout.
Mr Daniel also took issue with the wording of the question relating to the chopper rate.
"The wording of this option is a bit naughty as it asks ratepayers who object to the new rate to accept blame for reducing the region's emergency services," he said.
"I do not accept that the current level of emergency services may not be maintained if alternative funding cannot be secured."
He said this could only be the case until analysis of NEST's accounts showed otherwise.
To find out, on March 31 Mr Daniel asked Mr Bain for the trust's accounts for the past five years as they did not appear to be freely available to the public.
Mr Bain said a precis of NEST's accounts would be on its website by the end of the month and that would be the sum total of what the public could see.
Show us the chopper books!
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