Letters: Harness all energy for Rotorua's good

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While sympathetic to the mayor's recent message (Letters, January 6) asking for positivity, I note an inappropriate degree of negativity within her letter when she wrote 'the majority of people who call Rotorua home aspire for our district to flourish'. This implies there is a minority that doesn't want Rotorua to flourish. Is this true?

The mayor also wrote that 'it is imperative .... to turn our backs on negative energy'. It is very easy to fall into the trap of 'think the way I think' and you are positive with positive energy, but think differently and you are negative. A truly positive attitude, though, would be to claim that all people who call Rotorua home want the district to flourish. At the same time, one should recognise that 'flourish' does not mean the same thing to everybody. For some, 'flourish' may mean a population doubling, others may regard the environmental impacts of such an outcome a disaster.

Good leadership recognises this fact and does not label as positive or negative differing viewpoints but values diversity, seeks to promote understanding, and ensures proper analysis of claimed good ideas. That way, with time, we reach consensus around the important things for Rotorua's future.

Energy is energy, neither positive nor negative. Great leadership involves harnessing and utilising it, wherever found, to achieve better outcomes for all. Can we hope that in 2017 this, rather than a labelling of positive or negative energy, become the Rotorua Way.

KATHY HORGAN
Rotorua

The mayor's letter (January 6) attributed successes in other districts to the workings of 'positive energy'. It scapegoated 'negative energy' for limited growth in our district. It concluded, paradoxically, that "2017 is a new year, an opportunity for us all to contribute to positive beginnings".

The mayor apparently weighs up potential contributions in terms of whether or not she intuitively feels they embody positive or negative energy. Such judgements are inevitably subjective and idiosyncratic. They unavoidably pre-empt democratic strategic planning and priority setting as a pathway to community capacity building.

It is therefore important that Rotorua District Residents and Ratepayers continue its campaign to have council adopt four key principles in 2017:

1. Consider the wishes of citizens in our diverse communities of interest when deciding policy, using unbiased public consultations on all matters of significance;
2. Ensure that council officials advise councillors impartially, and implement their policies and decisions with fidelity, in a cost-effective and efficient manner;
3. Commit to representative democracy as defined in statute, with decisions made only by elected representatives after taking appropriate advice; and
4. Ensure that the mayor and councillors of the Rotorua Lakes Council comply with the law with respect to governance, purposes, policy making, operations, performance management and the environment.

The 41,397 votes cast for RDRR-endorsed candidates indicate substantial support for these principles.

REYNOLD MACPHERSON
Rotorua