It’s quite fun to be footloose and fancy free, retired and no longer required to engage with the grumpies in our society. (More and more as time goes by.) However, I always take an interest in council elections and I always cringe a bit when candidates desperate for a bit of attention say silly things designed to appeal to the dimmest possible voter.
News flash. Democracy may be a fragile thing but I have huge confidence in the voting public of Gisborne. Somehow, election after election, they choose pretty much the best people on offer.Since amalgamation they have decisively chosen the best Mayor on offer, and they have done pretty damn well with councillors too. (With the possible occasional booble, like electing me for seven terms!) They very rarely elect idiots.
If you are an unthinking person you can blame the state of our roads on the demise of the good old “roadman” days. Except, um, new world, eh? In NZ 2022 you cannot put a shovelful of shingle in a pothole without an approved traffic management plan, stop/go persons wearing hard hats both sides, temporary speed restriction signs at a prescribed distance, 457 orange cones, and when shovelling you’d better wear a mask. Not council’s fault, yours, for electing Governments scared of everything.
And if you are an unthinking person you can grumble about Trust Tairawhiti and the Eastland Group, even though they are probably the most outstanding success story of recent years in our region. Council selects from candidates for the trust. It looks for smart people strongly connected to this community. The trust selects members for the board of the Eastland Group, seeking hardheaded and dynamic business people. The board selects a hardheaded and dynamic CEO for the company. The job is to deliver benefits to the community, and most thinking Gisbornites are well aware they have delivered brilliantly. Maybe an unsuccessful investment or two (soon fixed), but excellent record of growth, excellent returns for our community.
Even I blinked twice when they talked about selling the network, but I bothered to read the reasoning, and it is sound, in my opinion. Of course, you don’t have to accept my opinion, you can go with the ones who think business decisions should be made by a referendum. Yeah right! By all means put our community wealth into the hands of “people power”. EGL would be worth about $1.50 by next week. There are even people who write worriedly about debt, apparently unaware that in business debt is used to fund growth. Like debt is used to buy a house, otherwise you will never own a house.