27 June 2018

Media: Rotorua Daily Post

Topic: Council's nomination for LGNZ awards

Enquiry

The reporter sought comment from Council in response to a letter from Rotorua District Residents and Ratepayers to mayors around the country -

The Daily Post reporter was asked what specific questions she had that she wanted a response to and subsequently asked the following:

• Is it disappointing Reynold is continuing to criticise the council publicly? Does the council intend to respond to the RDRR?
• The RDRR says council projects and strategies do not meet the LGNZ award criteria, how do you respond? The letter says the inner city is now "significantly less welcoming than before" how do you respond?
• It also says Te Aka Mauri does not integrate the library and health hub, instead they operate independently. Your thoughts?
• And finally the RDRR challenged the RLC to publish their applications. Can you please provide me with those?

Response

Below is a statement from the mayor in response to your enquiry:

Mayor Steve Chadwick:

We disagree with these unfounded assertions.

This man and his organisation are against anything and everything we do and are trying to achieve. He is nothing but a disgruntled loser who appears to not want Rotorua to succeed or progress.

He has lost in the elections - twice - and he has lost in the courts, with the ombudsman and with the auditor general. He's attempted to undermine Rotorua's progress through the media and by contacting the likes of event organisers and philanthropics to discourage them from investing in our district. He has also caused Council to waste hundreds of thousands of dollars dealing with his unfounded claims and I've asked for a more detailed account of that cost, including in staff time.

Now he's gone even further and is attempting to impact the reputation of Rotorua nationally by having a go through LGNZ. This is a new low - for him, his organisation and quite frankly, for the media, who, in their desire for conflict, continue to provide him with a platform.

He and his organisation constantly put Rotorua down in an attempt to undermine this Council and what we are trying to achieve for the benefit of our district and residents. Trying to discredit the validity of these awards is certainly a new low - it's embarrassing but it won't put us off our stride.

Ultimately, all he and his organisation are doing is trying to undermine Rotorua's evident progress. Despite his attempt to convince people that the opposite is true, the evidence of progress is everywhere - it just doesn't suit his narrative. It's evidenced through everything from our population growth (which has seen us acknowledged as a medium growth area) to a local economy consistently performing above the national average, new businesses being established, landowners and iwi progressing or looking to progress with their development aspirations, the housing market and amongst other things, ongoing interest by philanthropics and central government and its agencies in investing in Rotorua and its future.

We have important work to do and it doesn't include constantly being distracted by a time-waster who appears to want to see Rotorua return to the dark ages and should accept his losses and perhaps relocate so we can get on with it.

We don't always get everything right and there are ongoing challenges to address but these are also opportunities. There is a time for politics but right now is the time for us to be getting on with what needs to be done for the ongoing progress of our district.

That's what we're interested in and that's the focus of the Long-term Plan we're about to sign off. There are exciting things on the horizon for our district and we know that as a Council we are contributing to making a difference.

See below response from LGNZ to a related enquiry from Rotorua Daily Post:

LGNZ response:

The LGNZ EXCELLENCE Awards are subject to a robust and rigorous process and are judged by an independent judging panel who review each application and determine both finalists and winners using general and award-specific criteria. LGNZ reviews the criteria each year and integrates refinements as needed.

Background info:

For your information, the LGNZ EXCELLENCE Awards have been underway since 2014 and recognise and celebrate excellent performance by councils with regard to best practice governance, asset management, community engagement, environmental impact, economic development, cultural vibrancy, and overall performance excellence and community outcomes. Since the Awards inception, over 230 applications have been assessed with 94 finalists and 27 winners.

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Media: Rotorua Daily Post

Topic: Alleged incident outside Rotorua Library

Enquiry

The reporter put the following questions to Rotorua Lakes Council after hearing that a 10 year old boy got stuck in one of the half chair half bike rack seats outside the library and broke his leg in the last week or two. And wanted to check if this was something council was aware of.

Questions as follows:

• Is the council aware of this incident? And do you know when it happened?
• What are the details of the incident?
• Have there been any changes to the seats as a result?

Response

The reporter and informed Council has no record of any such incident and no such incident has been reported to Council.

This enquiry appears may have been prompted by a letter to the editor.

The writer had previously been spoken to by a Council staff member who had told him Council was unaware of any such incident and explained that the seats outside the library were not removed following an accident but to facilitate the reconfiguration of the parking outside the building (on the raised crossing) following concerns from the public.