Social responsibilities

Bruce Cotterill (Weekend Herald, September 24) seems to have only a limited knowledge of how councils actually work.

For instance, the power the bureaucracy (CEO, and council officers) has overall, in influencing the formulation and enactment of a council’s policy-making.

He cites the pursuit of “democracy” as a major factor in assessing candidates’ election promises — yet the public has no “democratic” say as to who these bureaucrats are. They are unelected, and so are “democratically untouchable”, in spite of the significance of their mandated policy influence.

Cotterill repeats the flawed mantra that “success in business” qualifies someone to take on the much broader societal responsibilities that government — national or local — also requires when elected.

Millionaire businessman John Key lacked leadership in the fight against climate change, being “quite comfortable” for New Zealand to lag behind internationally, as a so-called “fast follower”; increased the income gap between rich and poor through his tax cuts; raised GST to pay for them, which hurt middle- and lowincome earners the most; and ran annual deficits all through his tenure. Clyde Scott, Birkenhead.