Service providers let off hook

EMBARRASSED: Chief executive Pim Borren didn't like the way service providers were being interrogated by councillors. PHOTO/FILE

A change in the ways things are done at Masterton District Council meetings has come about seemingly through embarrassment caused to the chief executive Pim Borren.

In past years service providers including Destination Wairarapa, Aratoi and Toi Wairarapa have sent representatives to meetings in conjunction with furnishing quarterly reports to answer questions put by councillors.

But this week the reports were presented as part of the council meeting's agenda without any representatives attending.

Mr Borren explained to councillors he had canned the idea of having representatives from the groups coming to meetings as he had found the "interrogation" they had been subjected to in the past "embarrassing".

He said he was happy to have the organisations presenting the written reports for councillors but not to see representatives interrogated.

Mr Borren said the council spent much more money on hiring contractors but did not put them through the hoops like it did the service providers.

His comments passed without comment from any of the councillors present at Wednesday's meeting who had quarterly reports from Destination Wairarapa, Aratoi and Toi Wairarapa in front of them.

The three organisations were voted $266,240, $255,000 and $35,000 respectively in this financial year.

Usually councillor Brent Goodwin has been the most vocal of the questioning councillors but this week he didn't respond to Mr Borren's remarks.

Included in Toi Wairarapa's written quarterly report was a claim the organisation's sustainability "remains at risk".

Chairman Greg Lang said funding was not "captured" in the long-term plans of Wairarapa councils, meaning Toi Wairarapa had to make an appeal each year to the respective councils.

"This is inefficient and puts unrealistic expectations on an organisation of this size," Mr Lang said.