Councils are out of control - Hamilton Councillor

Councils are out of control. Not just Hamilton City, but across the Waikato. The truth is in the numbers. On Three Waters alone, they have collectively projected $7.5 billion in costs over the next decade. Divided across the Waikato population of 320,000, that is $23,438 per person.

But a quarter of that population live in rural areas with their own water tanks and septic systems, who rightly won’t be paying for services that they don’t have. This leaves the figure for a typical family of four in our towns and city at a crippling $125,000.

Can you afford that?

After two years on council, it has become clear that few councillors comprehend large numbers, and I am the only person on Hamilton City Council with a property and engineering background, having designed and built entire subdivisions with roads and drains. This means the political wing of councils are functionally incompetent.

Relying on staff instead is the definition of madness: doing the same thing again and again while hoping for different results. We get rid of a few politicians every three years, but the staff remain. It is a case of the lunatics running the asylum. There is a horrifying lack of accountability. Worse than that, if private citizens criticise the council, they get targeted for harassment. I have notified the Waikato Times of two cases so far this year.

Meanwhile, around the corner from my home, Waipa District Council is digging up a new roundabout it finished two months ago to put in four raised crossings, despite the government telling councils not to do this. Not only is it yet another waste of money, it is a devious way of getting around consulting with the public. Had the crossings been included in the original design, the public would have opposed the roundabout. Now it is being done within separate budgets as minor works without consent from the people.

There are solutions. The way councils manage projects seems to be designed to make everything cost at least twice as much. In the case of Auckland’s $250,000 concrete steps and Wellington’s $500,000 bike rack, it can be a crazy one hundred times the real cost.

There are engineering solutions, such as micro treatment plants that greatly reduce the cost of treating sewage and can be located in each suburb. Unfortunately for Hamilton, the council has just finished spending an eye-watering sum on pumping sewage from one end of the city to the other, so it can budget $500 million to expand the Pukete wastewater treatment plant.

I will be blunt. I am a successful businessman. I can afford to pay. You can’t. I can halve the cost, if I am allowed to. Most of you still couldn’t afford that, and they won’t allow me to do it anyway. “When you tear out a man’s tongue, you are not proving him a liar, you’re only telling the world that you fear what he might say” – George Martin. It is up to the people to take back control of the councils, or pay the price.


Regards

Andrew Bydder