It’s In The Ballot Papamoa 16 June

Photo Credit : Derrin Richards (Google Photos…)

Five Papamoa Ward candidates turned up for the Papamoa Ward “Its In The Ballot” event on Sunday Evening 16th of July. Seated left to right:

• Bryan Archer
• Ria Hall
• Shelley Rob
• John Bowden
• Dr Tim Maltby (GOF)

A Hard Hitting Question:

Transparency And Accountability

What steps will you take to make sure our local government is transparent and accountable?

I think that the key is to elect an honest Mayor and Councillors, who don’t have any hidden agendas. If the Mayor and Councillors are honest they are more likely to be transparent and accountable. If they are not honest, well what can I say. Tauranga, the home of back room deals.

It is up to the Mayor and Councillors to keep the council staff transparent and accountable, via the chief executive. That hasn’t happened much in the past. It needs to start happening now. But again we need to elect a team of honest Mayor and Councillors who can make sure that the staff are transparent and accountable, via the chief executive.

If elected, I would establish a review committee to manage and control reviews of the council organisation. The reviews must be independent of the staff. We need a deep dive into the council structure, it is inefficient and top heavy with managers. We need to find out what really happened with Bella Vista, the parking building, and Cameron road stage 1.

The chief executive and staff must be held accountable, and council staff decisions must be transparent. We need to solve the problems with a toxic culture and poor staff morale which has been going on for years. The council, by law, is supposed to be a good employer, and yet this problem has festered for years, including with our seagull commissioners.

The council organisation needs to be restructured to improve performance and reduce wasteful spending. The council currently is not fit for purpose, and is not providing value for money. It needs to be made more efficient and cost effective.