Kaipara Council 'running on luck'

8/08/2012 5:05:07 p.m.

Julz wrote:

How is withholding payment of due rates going to help this situation? Did anyone predict the financial downturn that would halt the development of Mangawhai? This is not just happening in Kaipara however we seem to be getting a hammering by the media including some local....why???? Maybe some people are pushing their own agenda? Why the hell-bent calls for the resignation of the mayor & deputy by the same people over & over? One wonders.

23/07/2012 12:44:31 p.m.

Rick wrote:

Councils have been given free reign by successive governments and this trust by showing their total incompetence at responsible rate payer money management. Not only should councillors and mayors involved with such bad decision making resign immediately but they should also face criminal negligence charges. They should not allow to get away scott free the crime of indenturing an entire generation of rate payers!

23/07/2012 8:24:26 a.m.

Elli wrote:

Its not only Mangawhai, we here in Russell are experiencing similar problems. Our rates will go up by 30% or more due to a sewerage system that we are paying for since 20 years now, but all councils in the past 2 decades have mismanaged the processes, costings, engaged in dubious loans, used the targeted rates money for pet projects etc.This is well documented. THe Russell peninsula is already paying the highest rates in the Far North. So what are our options? If we take this to the courts we will have to pay the council's legal costs with our rates and although Russell seems to be full of millionaires (according to o our very cynical, power hungry mayor Wayne Brown) we cannot afford to challenge this through legal process. Yep so many mayors and their cohorts behave like dictators,using their electorates like fifedoms, with a level of incompetence no board in private enterprise would tolerate (on second thoughts I might be wrong here if I think about the global finance sector).