Pleas to keep jobs in vain

Pleading to be allowed to keep their jobs has proved an exercise in futility for Tauranga City councillors. Local government minister Nanaia Mahuta has followed through on an earlier announcement she intended to sack the longdysfunctional council and replace them with commissioners. Mahuta wrote to the council in early December to inform the organisation that she intended to appoint a commission due to ‘‘significant governance problems among the council’s elected representatives’’. As required in the Local Government Act 2002, the council was given 10 days to respond. Councillor Jako Abrie and Mayor Tenby Powell both resigned this term and both called for a commissioner to be appointed. Eight out of the nine remaining councillors signed the letter to Mahuta which ‘‘strongly requests that you do not appoint a commission’’. In the letter the councillors suggested a Crown manager and observer, should be appointed, which would allow them to retain their employment as elected decision-makers around the council table – but be overruled if it was deemed necessary. However, Mahuta wasn’t having it. ‘‘The council’s response has not presented me with sufficient evidence on how it is addressing its problems,’’ Mahuta announced yesterday . ‘‘I consider a commission to be necessary to deliver the strategic leadership that the council and city needs.’’ The commission’s term will begin early next year and end at the elections in October 2022.