Rudman's city: Franklin draws the line for hopeful arts groups

By BRIAN RUDMAN

Down Franklin way, the seasons continue to tick over, but at the district council it's as though time stood still. The old councillors have all been re-elected. The only new face is that of Helen Russell, who is filling a vacancy in the Pukekohe ward.

All of which is not the best of news for regional arts groups hoping for a dollop of cash from the Franklin Arts and Cultural Projects Fund.

You may recall the on-going saga from earlier columns. Since I last wrote about it a month ago, it's got even more hilarious - or scandalous, depending on whether you're a bystander like myself or a struggling arts organisation.

Franklin has a $364,000 windfall to distribute, its share of the $10 million set aside by Parliament for arts projects on the dissolution of the Auckland Regional Services Trust in October 1998.

Parliament resolved that the money would be allocated to the various territorial councils "to be held in trust to be applied to significant projects in the Auckland region in the area of arts and culture".

The four large cities have, on the whole, stuck to the spirit of this legislation in distributing their share of the loot, but the performance of the smaller councils has been more, shall we say, erratic - and none more so than Franklin's.

Franklin District stretches across the throat of the North Island where the Auckland and Waikato regions meet. The northern half of Franklin is in the Auckland region and the southern half is in the Waikato region.

Franklin councillors used this geo-political oddity to bend the sense of the law, as far as the arts money is concerned, beyond recognition. They advertised that projects seeking funds from the windfall "must occur within the geographical boundaries of the Auckland region (see map)". The accompanying map didn't show the Auckland region you and I know, it highlighted something called the Auckland region of Franklin.

When objections were raised, Franklin made out it was all a misunderstanding and that of course all Aucklanders could apply. But early last month, when the seven short-listed projects were announced, the outside world's worst fears were confirmed. Significant regional arts groups like the Auckland Philharmonia and the Auckland Theatre Company were nowhere to be seen.

They'd been jostled out of contention by a giant ferro-cement oyster catcher to stand in the Firth of Thames wetlands as a rival to, in the words of the artist, Paeroa's soft-drink bottle and Ohakune's carrot.

Among other projects were two tourist proposals - a replica wooden lighthouse for the Manukau Heads and a "five-star" marae - and a plan to extend the Pukekohe council chambers as an arts and cultural centre.

The day before the council met to decide which of these regionally significant projects to back, I wrote about the saga. This inspired a "please explain" fax to Franklin from Associate Arts Minister Judith Tizard and a subsequent decision to postpone the selection.

Two workshops of the mayor, councillors and relevant officials were held to review the selection processes.

The ensuing report revealed that "definitions of both 'culture' and 'significant' were agreed upon" at the workshops. However, there is no mention of the meaning of "regional". The councillors' inability to grasp this basic concept becomes clear in their decision.

They decided to add five more projects to the shortlist. All of them are strictly local.

There is $40,000 for uniforms for the local RSA pipe band and $123,110 to upgrade Pukekohe Light Opera's Harrington Hall. Pukekohe North School and Pukekohe Intermediate want $40,000 and $60,000 for gateway projects and $32,560 is requested for a pouwhenua carving project.

Just to rub it in, the failed regionally significant arts organisations received a letter from Franklin saying that the earlier shortlist of seven had undergone "peer review" - whatever that might mean - and the applicants had still failed to meet the district's unique criteria.

When I heard that the district was reviewing its original shortlist, I was naive enough to think the good burghers of Franklin realised the game was up and would go away and come back with a more acceptable list. Silly me.

The inclusion of projects such as uniforms for the local pipeband is nothing but a two-fingered salute to the rest of the region and to the legislation. However worthy of public funding this and the other shortlisted projects are, it's hard to pick any that fits the statutory criteria laid out for grants from this fund.

Franklin Council meets on Thursday week to distribute the money. Somehow I doubt that will be the end of the matter.