Please follow the rules – Northern Advocate - 6 November 2009

Rules out the window !

At the Whangarei District Council meeting of Thursday 29^th October, in summing up in the ‘Old Boys Rugby Club Sale’ fiasco, our Mayor Stan Semenoff stated ‘those of you with pens, I ask, be careful how you portray what council has done for the CBD and Town Basin’. Speaking of accuracy, well here we go…. At the end of the submission process hearing on 12^th August 2009 for the ‘Old Boys Rugby Club Sale’ the Mayor stated ‘Those councillors that were not present for all of the submission process will not be allowed to vote’. If those were “the rules” maybe he should have been restricted from voting at the earlier LTCCP submission process at which he only attended 31% of the time. If these were now “New Rules” then Councillor’s Alan Goodhew, Phil Halse, Warwick Syers, Crichton Christie and Sue Glen should all not have participated in this round of the orchestrated deal. I must thank the many submitters I had contact with prior to this last meeting and hope their attendance enlightened them to how our council operates. As for the employment opportunities produced by this sale many now realize there will be opportunities to employ at least 11 in October next year by the current performance indicators. Lets now all focus on supporting our current CBD network of retailers into the future, who have been loyal in the past to our community.

Warren Slater

Maunu