In recent years Napier ratepayers were told Art Deco Buses would be a great tourism attraction and money spinner. They weren't.
We were told 680,000 people would visit the city's new Museum, Theatre and Gallery annually. They didn't.
Napier Skating Club was told that "SK8 Zone" would remain open and in place until the new, Council-operated skating facility was opened. It didn't.
When the council demolished Sk8 Zone ahead of time, we were told they had found a temporary facility for the club. The week it was supposed to open we discovered that wouldn't happen either.
Watchdog! claimed there were serious issues with the Napier Pound. Napier's mayor called it a "pathetic crusade". The Ministry of Primary Industries found otherwise.
Following the second positive E.coli test and subsequent chlorination of Napier's normally pure water supply this year, NCC chose to chlorinate the whole system for "up to a month" in late May to ensure the waterborne bugs were killed off.
Yet, here we are in July - six weeks later and it still smells like a swimming pool whenever I turn a tap on and a 4.9 per cent rates increase is on the cards for something that never used to be a problem.
We've been told the Napier "needs" a multimillion-dollar Velodrome. In fact it's the "number one priority" for some in council and is sneaking back on to agendas.
It doesn't.
I've read through the reports which were being used as a basis for justifying this "need" and all I can find about a velodrome was that, "There is no track cycling venue in HB" and "Explore future opportunities for a velodrome". That's it!
During last year's elections Napier ratepayers very clearly expressed the need for an aquatic facility like the old Onekawa Olympic Pool. Those running for re/election voiced almost universal approval for a pool and dismissal of the velodrome.
Even the mayor said the velodrome/public pool issue "was not an either/or situation".
Yet thousands of ratepayer dollars have been spent on viability reports for and promotion of a velodrome concept, while there's no sign of a new, publicly supported, competition / Olympic-sized swimming pool under construction and silence from its freshly elected "supporters"?
More recently, many a "Yeah, right!" has been muttered at revelations NCC's offices were dangerously earthquake-prone, despite 2010/11 reports saying they were 100 per cent up to code.
Many consider this timing all too auspicious, given NCC management have been looking at selling the site off to hotel developers, relocating NCC HQ into the neighbouring library building and somehow squeezing Napier's library into a much smaller space in Clive Square, potentially endangering yet more war memorials - Napier's Women's Rest building and the city's cenotaph!
The people of Napier want answers.
The people of Napier want the truth!
The people of Napier deserve better!
Andrew Frame is a Napier-based commentator on local issues. More of his views and opinions can be read at http://www.napierinframe.co.nz/.
Views expressed here are the writer's opinion and not the newspaper's. Email: editor@hbtoday.co.nz