Dialogue: Councillors care for the basics to build top city

Far from slashing spending in key areas for short-term political gain, the Waitakere City Council has increased expenditure, writes JENNY PRICE.

Columnist Garth George is wrong about the Waitakere City Council slashing budgets, and about who would have done the slashing if it had occurred.

There have, in fact, been significant increases in spending in exactly the areas George claimed that we had slashed.

The council sets an objective of a zero rates increase before discussing how - or even if - that might be achieved. That is an essential discipline. Knowing there is not an open chequebook helps us all to sharpen our pencils.

Council staff then offer budgets for consideration, including various cuts that could be made.

The council then meets and discusses the many options this process provides. And that is all before we offer the draft annual budget to the public to make submissions before further amendment.

George clearly has got hold of the staff budgets, which are the very start of the process and rarely bear any relationship to the final outcome. So he has targeted the wrong people.

It was staff, not the council, who offered cuts, such as reduction in road, footpath, kerb and channel and parks maintenance and library services, as options for discussion.

I emphasise that these are merely options to discuss and choose between. In the event, the council has not only reinstated spending in all of those areas, it has also increased it in most of them.

We have not slashed $1.1 million for roads. We have increased spending on road resealing, footpaths and kerb and channel, allowing for the unavoidable cost increase for tarseal created by oil price increases.

In parks, we have also, in effect, increased the vote. We have reinstated existing maintenance funds allowed for the new park assets we will acquire.

In libraries, we have not only reinstated $27,000 for book purchases but have voted an extra $97,000 to enable the libraries to open at weekends.

The arts and culture budget was also reinstated to the previous level. A total of $40,000 has been added to tourism. We have boosted our contribution to Tourism Auckland from $80,000 to $100,000 and initiated a $20,000 contribution towards a new visitor information centre. We have also started the redevelopment of our aquatic centre in Henderson. This is already in the top rank of competition pools internationally, and the additions will modernise it into a multi-activity facility with something for everyone.

There are funds set aside for the start of a major sports facility at the Waitakere City Stadium, of which John Graham has said: "It is the perfect model for a community sports centre."

If George had spent one hour investigating our methodology, if he had asked a single question, he would have learned this is not a knee-jerk council adopting short-term measures for political gain. Nor is it possible.

We are governed by laws covering maintenance of assets and long-term planning.

The council takes good long-term management very seriously, tediously seriously over many hours over many days, penny-pinching here so that we can be more generous there.

Our aim is to get the fundamentals right so that efficient, sustainable financial management is possible. That provides the basis on which a great city is built. And Waitakere, despite all the guffawing of the media, is a great city.

As for the comment that the mayor said he hadn't had a job for nine years, Bob Harvey was joking, as anyone with a sense of proportion would have known instantly. Love him or hate him, nobody can accuse Mr Harvey of idleness. He works a minimum 12 hours a day, seven days a week.

George claims that Waitakere is being run by clowns. He might care to reflect on the fact that a clown is one who deliberately makes a fool of him or herself in public, often by exaggerated and ridiculous gestures and comments. That seems to fit his column perfectly.

However, a clown is also supposed to be amusing but I find nothing amusing about George's column.

Freedom of speech and freedom of the press must be cherished. With freedom goes responsibility and even columnists have a responsibility to attempt to get their facts right, unless they are self-evidently being satirical. The public can hardly be expected to get their facts right when the media do not.

* Jenny Price chairs the Waitakere City Council's finance, policy and property committee.