Letters: Opportunities for major council savings

Rotorua Lakes Council building. Photo/File

Participation by Te Tatau o Te Arawa Board (TTTAB) nominees on the SP&F and O&M Committees of council has fallen steadily to about half what it started out as, with no shows at some meetings.

During the Annual Plan hearings, TTOTAB's two nominees to each committee were withdrawn to avoid perceptions of a conflict of interest. The board and the two community boards made submissions and were each heard by council, without participating in the final decision.

The TTOTAB has a budget of $250,000 per annum to provide policy advice to these two committees via two nominees on each, and to two other committees. It will receive an additional $40,000 in 2019 to pay for its election. It has just been promised another $1 million to deliver an unspecified bilingual programme. The council has just advertised for a new group manager Maori for well over $100,000 to provide corporate management advice and ideological leadership.

There are opportunities for major savings here for residents and ratepayers, a not insignificant issue in the light of the comparative data in the New Zealand Taxpayers' Union's 2017 Ratepayers' Report.

If the chief executive needs advice on corporate management he can get it from the chair of TTOTAB. The Kaitiaki Maori can provide ideological leadership. Given the actual attendance of nominees, a proportionate amount of the base budget can be handed back. Finally, local Maori businesses can be given a chance by council specifying a modest Bilingual Programme, and putting it out to tender.

REYNOLD MACPHERSON
Rotorua

Council rating
I refer to the Rotorua Daily Post article (August 23) regarding the rating of our council.

Witness the bizarre extreme to which council officials have in my opinion tried to deny, twist or deflect the obvious truths in the New Zealand Taxpayers' Union findings; our council is over staffed, over paid and over the hill.

Take the salary of the CEO for instance; $6000 per week! Is he worth it? He certainly does not show it in my view. Many expenses are above the national average; all wages and salaries, council's debt per ratepayer, the cost of this per ratepayer at $445, reaching double the national average.

I agree with Reynold Macpherson's analysis; it's time for "Council to give its audit and risk committee a lawyer, an independent chair, and a code of conduct requiring political neutrality, in addition to its independent member and accountant. Compress governance, personnel, PR and debt costs. Cut the top-heavy management structures and the vanity and legacy projects, and focus on core service productivity. Or resign."

[ABRIDGED]
HARRY BRASSER
Rotorua