Let's put debt under the microscope

Warren Slater. Photo / File

The Northland Chamber of Commerce surveyed Whangarei's 12 mayoral candidates on five key issues in the district. The Northern Advocate is publishing the responses in alphabetical order.

At the September 3 Meet Your Mayor evening, all candidates were asked one of these questions. Warren Slater's response from that night is also published today.

1: How would a council under your leadership establish what is an acceptable level of debt?

One of my policies is that we have council finances forensically audited to reveal the full nature and extent of council's debt burden, its exposure to future interest rate increases and the implications of arrears of maintenance of council roads, footpaths, services and property.

There are other factors that have an effect and we must instil contingency plans to protect our budgets. Once we have this established and then look at council's commitments can we then ascertain a level of sustainable debt. There is a lot of work to be done in this area before an acceptable level of debt can be established. It is unwise to make calculations without all the information required to make an informed decision.

2. What is the council's role in fostering economic development?

I believe council must become more user friendly. Currently from the many I communicate with I am told council is stifling new and existing business development from being undertaken from those willing to invest in our business environment. These people need to be encouraged. It is pointless chasing them away by making project approvals too hard. There are many organisations available who work proactively in these areas and we must work alongside them to assist and encourage these businesses to use Whangarei as their base of business.

3. How would a council under your leadership foster a business-friendly environment?

My full intention is to have an open door policy. Communication must be two way to understand and accommodate the needs of our business sector. If you are not listening to the needs of that sector you will not understand what will work for them. Council must be non competitive to business to avoid any potential conflicts of interest. Communication development should be made readily available to staff and councillors to foster for a better culture when working within the community areas that we are charged to serve.

4. Is the council currently involved in any commercial activities that you feel it should not be? How would you remedy this?

In short, yes. From many comments heard and my own observations, council is in direct competition with some businesses, especially as landlords. I believe they need to focus on what is laid down by government for them and that is basic infrastructure. Leave business to the people that are good at it; if there is an opportunity they will come along and be there to grab it. Some other projects council has in the planning have the potential for conflicts, if council chooses to run businesses within them that have the potential to be an opposition to close and existing businesses.

5. What single piece of infrastructure do you believe Whangarei is lacking that would stimulate economic growth?

My opinion after listening to others is Whangarei lacks good top quality accommodation. If we are to encourage more top-line tourists here we may well need a better class of accommodation. This does not mean get council involved in that as council has no experience in hotel implementation or management; leave it to the experts. If it is viable those in that field will be queuing up to do it. What it means is council work willingly alongside those investors that wish for a project of this magnitude and ensure the process of land acquisition and resource and building consents goes through in a timely, reasonable and fair process. A project of that magnitude will create jobs during the building phases and ongoing employment during its further operation.

I am also in favour in North Port entering into containerisation when the rail link becomes operational as I believe this may well be a key to Whangarei and Northland's future.

Mr Slater's Meet The Mayor question was Question 2 - his response on September 3 was:

I think council has got to be more user-friendly. I talk to a lot of people that have existing businesses who want to actually invest in town and they actually set the hoops too high. I was recently involved with a submission process where a person we know actually wanted to build a medical centre, a neurological specialist centre, and it had to go through a process - and I agree there must be processes. But it went through this process where he wanted to spend his money on putting a feature in our district to benefit all of us - a neurological specialist centre.

And I put a submission in, and I'm pleased I did. It finally was approved and the main thing that came out of it was the building had to be a different colour to the existing medical centre. That cost him between about $22,000 to $25,000. That's the sort of thing we've got to stop. We've got to be realistic when we are trying to develop the town.

I think it's got to be easier for people. And another thing about that is it was also with leasehold land.

People are not going to spend all their money upgrading a building that they may own the building but not the land it's on so we actually have to get back round the table and start discussing that with those leaseholders. Thank you.

In tomorrow's paper, Warwick Syers responds to the Chamber's questions.