KEY POINTS:
Former mayor John Banks has been rarking up Dick Hubbard with a number of claims on the hustings. Mr Hubbard says Mr Banks has been spreading a litany of untruths and half-truths. One such testy exchange between the two arch-rivals at a mayoral debate hosted by the St Marys Bay Association on Wednesday night went like this:
John Banks: This is a mayor and council out of control with your chequebook. Not one single citizen in this room would have signed up to the Chinese tiling job in Queen St. One of the worst tiling projects in the modern cities of the world.
Dick Hubbard: That's crap.
JB: It is crap. That's what it is. And all the galvanised water pipes under Queen St are going to have to be taken up.
DH: That is wrong. That is an untruth.
JB: What is not an untruth is that two weeks ago in Mission Bay this mayor said rates would increase by 37 per cent.
DH: He did not. He did not.
The Herald asked Mr Hubbard yesterday for examples of Mr Banks' claims, to sort fact from fiction.
Claim by Mr Banks: The council paid thousands of dollars for nikau palms in Queen St which cost only $480 to source.
Mr Hubbard: Totally misleading. The trees were obtained from a wholesaler on the West Coast for a good price. Huge costs are added when you transport something the size of a 7m-tall palm up the country. It is like transporting giraffes. Costs are added tending to a plant of this size for a year in a nursery.
Fact or fiction: Of the 47 palms in Queen St, 25 came from a farmer on the West Coast of the South Island. They were bought for $562.50 each but by the time they were removed, transported and maintained by the Specimen Tree Company, they were sold to the council for $8800 each. The total price for the 47 nikau palms was $454,000. Nursery owners said ratepayers snared a bargain for such large specimens.
Claim by Mr Banks: Queen St is a very bad joke and has suffered a cost blow-out of at least $20 million.
Mr Hubbard: If you ask anyone who works, lives or studies on or near Queen if it is a disaster, the answer will be absolutely not. Queen St is a success story. It was paid for by the business community out of a special targeted rate for those in the CBD. Costs have increased because we put a huge urban design emphasis on the look and feel of the street.
Fact or fiction: The original Queen St budget of $23.4 million in Mr Banks' term of council has nearly doubled to $43.5 million. The controversy over axing exotic trees for a native theme added between $2.6 million and $5 million to the bill. Extra consultation and other costs added a further $1 million. Urban design improvements have also added to the bill. CBD ratepayers are footing about 80 per cent of the bill through a targeted rate.
Claim by Mr Banks: Eastern Bays beaches will have human body waste pumped onto them for six years longer.
Mr Hubbard: Clean beaches are an absolute priority for this council. This council has brought the clean-up programme forward by 10 years. The council took a slightly cheaper option on capital expenditure to clean up the beaches over the period 2006-2016. It took this decision on the basis that information available at present still needs work and the technology could change significantly between now and 2016. The council is spending a record $36 million this year on stormwater and some of this is designed to prevent sewage overflows.
Fact or fiction: The council-owned water company, Metrowater, wanted to cut the number of wastewater overflows at the eastern beaches to one a year by 2027. The council agreed with this timeline but in February last year had a change of heart and requested Metrowater to put the project back six years to 2033. The council said both timelines required the same capital costs for the first six years and were subject to later review to see if the work could be speeded up.
Claim by Mr Banks: The council has covered up the cost to ratepayers of the leaky building crisis, which is about $500 million.
Mr Hubbard: All information we have on the leaky homes issue is in the public arena except for details of individual settlements which are required by law to remain confidential. A number of the claims coming through now for leaky homes are for houses specifically built during my opponent's term as mayor.
Fact or fiction: Mr Hubbard's council has consistently refused to release details on the size of the leaky building crisis. After political stirring by Mr Banks and Citizens & Ratepayers, the council last month released some broad figures putting the bill between $200 million and $360 million over 12 years. The council is still hiding details about the expected number of claims and the budgeted shortfall, believed to be between $30 million and $190 million.
Claim by Mr Banks: This council has spent more on consultants than any of its predecessors.
Mr Hubbard: The majority of money spent has been for specialist engineers and designers for the $337 million worth of capital expenditure over this time. As the amount of capital projects for things like footpaths and stormwater has increased, so has the need for professional services to design them. Mr Banks spent $13 million for consultants on the eastern highway and about $800,000 on consultant fees for the V8 car race.
Fact or fiction: Mr Hubbard's council has spent about $90 million on consultants in the past three years. Exact figures are not available for the previous term under Mr Banks but what figures are available ($36 million in 2001-2002 and $26.7 million in the year to August 2003) point to a similar level of spending. Auckland City's share of a $13.3 million study by consultants on the eastern highway was $5.2 million and the council spent $750,000 on the failed resource consent for the V8 car race.
Claim by Mr Banks: Rates will rise 37 per cent over the next three years.
Mr Hubbard: He is referring to figures in the council's 10-year plan. Since the plan was adopted last year the council has agreed to a borrowing programme to finance some of the big projects. The details are not finalised and it is expected that this will result in overall rate increases of about 15 per cent over three years. With borrowing this year, Auckland City had the lowest overall rates increase in the region.
Fact or fiction: The council is budgeting overall rate increases of 10.2 per cent, 10.1 per cent and 13.2 per cent over the next three years, a compound total of 37.3 per cent. The council has started a borrowing programme to soften these increases. It will be up to the new council to decide by how much. Auckland City did have the lowest overall rates increase among the big cities this year at 3.6 per cent. The Auckland Regional Council was the next lowest with 4.9 per cent.
