City councillors losing their way
Our MPDavid Bennett has hit the nail on the head in the article No gain for city’s east ( Hamilton Press, November 22).
In the north-east of the city is a park that is an overgrown paddock mowed yearly for hay; a small playground on top of a windswept hill without seating placed for parents to sit and keep an eye on their children; 30m away from an unfenced major road; a stormwater pool next to a footpath that is almost a cesspool; and a pathway that is still a dirt track and overgrown, even though the pathway was to have been completed by 2009.
The Rototuna schools’ area is distressed by the lack of essential streets, leading to major traffic problems.
One good thing about this area of the city is the improving bus service.
Recently the mayor decided that we would pay for the free parking in the CBD and there is talk about redeveloping Garden Place (again).
Then he dropped the ongoing playgrounds plan, saying it is too expensive.
He is pushing for a luxurious theatre complex in the middle of the CBD where there is little parking ($30m-plus GST of our money for this extravagance).
Now he wants $25k so he can have a better view out his window.
A few months ago, mayor King and CEO Briggs signed off the 2016/17 annual report with only a brief mention for decisions on ‘‘what to fund, and what not to fund, and how to pay for it’’.
Now King wants a 16.5 per cent rates increase.
The oath of office councillors and mayor must take after each election only empowers them under the Local Government Act 2002 when they uphold that Act.
If Hamilton City Council doesn’t provide democratic local government for and on behalf of, and for the good of the whole community, then the mayor and councillors have broken their oath of office.
Hamilton City Council’s vision is for ‘‘a stronger economy and a more attractive city for families’’.
An attractive city will only happen when the mayor and councillors care about the whole community.
It is a well-known fact that when a leader loses their focus on a leadership that is for the good of the whole community, their lust and greed set in and they become corrupt and a bully – (for example, the recent news on Zimbabwe).
-Dr Don Hewison