Eating humble pie

The honeymoon didn’t last long. Typically, newly elected councils like to spend at least a while portraying themselves as selfless paragons of duty before burying their snouts in the public trough. Not so for Wellington City Council.

It would not be unreasonable to imagine that many Wellingtonians who voted for change last month did so because they could see a growing ‘‘To Do’’ list and few signs of anyone ticking things off. Uppermost would have been things like a traffic network going nowhere, an almost abandoned Civic Square, and rising costs of earthquake resilience. Maybe even an indoor stadium or a convention centre. It’s unlikely that many voters had ‘‘free lunch for councillors’’ as a civic priority.

Yet barely had councillors got down to any business before they decided that lunch on the ratepayers was one of the first items they should get sorted. On the two or three days a week when they work full days, they’ll get sandwiches provided, and an hour off to eat them. That’s in stark contrast to many of their voters, who bring or buy their own lunches and are lucky if they get 10 minutes to eat them at their desks.

The lunchtime largesse was approved by mayor Andy Foster, who six years ago led moves to scrap catered lunches as a way of saving ratepayers’ money. So why has he changed his mind? Reading between the lines, it seems he hasn’t – but his hungrier colleagues have the numbers, and he has been forced to give way (or as he puts it, to ‘‘listen to feedback’’).

Whatever the truth, it looks like one of his first acts has been to award councillors a feed at someone else’s expense. That’s enough to give voters indigestion.