But any call for New Zealand to become a republic is a step too far. Advocates of republicanism conveniently overlook a modus operandi that works and continues to serve our country very well and, importantly, the blend of our various historical traditions.
Garry Whincop, Napier
Council off the topic
I refer to the minutes of the meeting of the Napier City Council on 10/08/11 which were confirmed unanimously by the council 21/09/11.
In my 9 years as a councillor, including 6 years as a chair of 5 committees, I have never seen a worse case of members of council not having a clue as to what they were discussing or agreeing to.
As a chair I always took members to task if they had not read or understood their agendas - invariably this occurred at least once a month.
Never, ever, did I believe that this would apply to the mayor and her 12 obedient councillors over the same issue - but it has.
Page 18 of the minutes is headed up Napier/ Hastings Amalgamation - why, when no one [except the NCC] is suggesting or discussing such a topic. This heading is diametrically opposed to the purpose of the report which I quote in full:
"To provide council with an assessment of the debate regarding amalgamation of Local Government in Hawke's Bay and address the request from Mayor Yule relating to further regional reviews and studies."
Simple, you would think with the operative words being "Local Government in Hawke's Bay".
The ensuing report did no such thing.
Instead of a rational assessment of the region as a whole it comprised a 7 page rant demonizing Mayor Yule for requesting a co-operative approach to bettering our performance.
It went out of its way to emphasise the perceived weakness of the HDC by deliberately choosing to omit a full financial analysis which would have provided a balanced assessment.
Worse, it failed totally to mention the ramifications vis a vis the HBRC, CHB and Wairoa - which it was required to do.
Thus the mayor's misleading heading - Napier/Hastings Amalgamation.
Clearly, a deliberate and mean spirited attempt to further "muddy the waters" when a rapidly growing number of the regions citizens are calling for an unbiased and independent study of our concerns.
Predictably, at the meeting of 10/08/11 councillors fell into the trap of denigrating the proponents of an independent study but "forgot" that the report they were discussing had failed totally in addressing the issues as they required it to.
Simply put they failed to even begin to understand what they had requested and what they received - totally unbelievable!
But it gets worse. At the council meeting last week chaired by the mayor to confirm the minutes they took a "follow the leader" stance and rubber stamped the report which had nothing to do with their original request.
It's about time that the mayor and her council actually read and understood as they are charged to do before making an already toxic situation a lot worse.
This item must be expunged as it never met the terms and purpose the NCC set.
Time is rapidly running out for the NCC to lead, follow or get out of the way in co-operating in an independent study for the betterment of our region and our future.
John J. HarrisonWestshore
