Nickie Muir: Love me tender best option

Nickie Muir.

When it comes to vegetables, schooling and anaesthetics, local is usually better. Not always true for the tendering of council contracts. Catching up with the news of the council contract for dogs, parking and partying, previously held by Environmental Northland, going to Amourguard, (now an American-owned corporation) I listened to the argument that contracts should be kept for small local firms.

I nodded obligingly at the anti-corporation rhetoric but just couldn't agree in this instance. I found it heartening the new WDC CEO, Rob Forlong, is introducing some new blood into the very limited gene pool that has been the comfortable contracting status quo for far too long in Northland.

It would be a different story if the community had been particularly well served by many of these contractors but there are many anecdotal stories that would suggest that this has too often not been the case.

The inveterate grumpy old man and local treasure, Brian May, insisted in his recent court case that Environmental Northland had used its contract staff to confiscate his truck illegitimately as a result of his propensity to write rude messages about former council leadership on the side, and gleefully drive around town in it.

It's never a good look to have contractors acting on jobs that should probably be outside of their jurisdiction and there were other questions over the years especially around the handling of dogs. Including my own.

While it's easy to run the line that it's important to support small local firms - which it is - it is equally important to make sure that the community receives the best service for the money.

Relationships are the best of small towns and also their nemeses. Loving the community feel - loathing the special relationships that can mean that comfortable can become complacent and, if not closely regulated and held to account, corrupt.

Seeing change in contracts signals that this has not happened and that holding council contracts is not some mystic right based on long-term or long-ago relationships.

Surely that should give encouragement in the tendering process to lots of small local contractors who have never yet been able to get a look in.

It's not like Armourguard will be employing fly-in fly-out staff to the outpost of Whangers - it will still be local people being employed and sure they could go all evil and corporate and hold the council to ransom but we can give them time and a chance to do that before denouncing them.

This reviewing of council contracts should be encouraging because every local contractor will watch the new kid on the block and be only too happy to point out any shortcomings - it's how the system stays honest.

This works well in big towns but in the small ones debate and questioning in the face of tight political and business relationships can be as much fun as peeing into the wind.

Constructive conflicts are good for democracy and help to avoid conflicts of interest.