It's that time again - where all those annoying election signs pop up like mushrooms across our region.
Drive home from work and there's three more to greet you, smack you in the eyeball, smile enticingly at you or possibly even give you a cheeky little wink.
As annoying as some of these may be, they are important as they advertise the pool of candidates from which we as a region elect whom will represent us on our major local government organisations over the next three years and who will work on our important issues, of which there are plenty of.
Hawke's Bay regional performance in the terms of health, education, economic growth and household income is behind most of New Zealand. The performance of the region in these matters was reviewed last year in a study commissioned on behalf of Hawke's Bay Councils, the report colloquially named the Winder Report. It basically spells out that we stink in certain areas and it's only going to get worse unless we change things. In that context, lobby group A Better Hawke's Bay jumped on the issue seeking reorganisation to the structure of local government within Hawke's Bay, by bringing all councils together, as the answer to Hawke's Bays dire predicament.
The change in particular is designed to address the structure of local government in such a way that would provide opportunities for efficiencies and cost savings and productivity improvements for those who interact with the local authority.