https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/ldr/444974/rotorua-lakes-council-
s-7-deputy-ceos-mp-former-mayor-call-for-independent-review

Puts rates up by 9%, then appoints 7 deputy CEOs and give them pay rises!

I wish I was joking.

lakeview3 - 2021-06-17 21:46:00

My rates are now over $4000.

Is there no end to the madness?
Who voted for these people? Not me!

lakeview3 - 2021-06-17 21:48:00

And still the roads are full of potholes!

lakeview3 - 2021-06-17 21:48:00

We need some sort of intervention, these power hungry money wasters have seriously lost the plot.

They have no respect for the ratepayers or how hard some of us work to earn a dollar.

lakeview3 - 2021-06-17 21:52:00

Oh and I haven’t even mentioned how they allowed all the homeless people to come here from out of town and turn this once lovely city into a festering hub of crime! Thanks for nothing eh? Boy are we getting ‘bang’ for our buck!

lakeview3 - 2021-06-17 21:57:00

I don't care.

ash4561 - 2021-06-17 22:25:00

Vote the mayor and councillors out of office. See that Chadwick has been Mayor since 2013 but "the changes needed". Has she done nothing or very little in 8 years?

amasser - 2021-06-18 10:17:00

amasser wrote:

Vote the mayor and councillors out of office. See that Chadwick has been Mayor since 2013 but "the changes needed". Has she done nothing or very little in 8 years?

the mayor and CEO have surrounded themselves with enablers and to further ensure compliance it seems they have given some pay rises with our rates money.

Just to be clear out council owes millions of dollars. So I ask myself why these already overpaid people are getting pay rises? They have the most ridiculous expenditure on vanity projects. The lakefront development that no one wanted is a mess. They waste money on gardens, sculptures and stupid festivals and markets. Why the council gets involved with festivals and markets is beyond me. Leave those to the people who want to organise and run them as a business venture.

All councils should be sticking to core services like roading, water and rubbish.

We need an intervention and some accountability for failures by our council.

Edited by lakeview3 at 11:51 am, Fri 18 Jun

lakeview3 - 2021-06-18 11:49:00

A city is basically a "big business", but its board of directors is just a bunch of "enthusiast amateurs", none of whom have or have to have any business acumen !! The law around a public company would not permit you to have a board of directors who had no business skills, so why is it ok for a city council ??
City council like "glamour projects", projects that are a bit "sexy" like convention centres, art galley. When the countries mayors get together for their annual conference there are no brownie points in having upgraded 5km of old sewers and some new infrastructure, but a new convention centre, then you are patted on the back !!
The CEO and senior management of a city council know that the council members are basically "thick as pig sh*t" when it comes to business / money matters, so can run rings around them and tell them "do not worry about this, we are the experts, we will sort it out" !!
The bottom-line for the good of the rate payer the council should be controlled by a professional board of directors, who are instructed to make the council "stick to its knitting" of road, water & sewer. Why a city council has to get involved with pensioner flats or a library, still has me confused.

onl_148 - 2021-06-18 13:33:00

onl_148 wrote:

Why a city council has to get involved with pensioner flats or a library, still has me confused.

Because central govt tells them too.

smallwoods - 2021-06-18 14:08:00

onl_148 wrote:

A city is basically a "big business", but its board of directors is just a bunch of "enthusiast amateurs", none of whom have or have to have any business acumen !! The law around a public company would not permit you to have a board of directors who had no business skills, so why is it ok for a city council ??
City council like "glamour projects", projects that are a bit "sexy" like convention centres, art galley. When the countries mayors get together for their annual conference there are no brownie points in having upgraded 5km of old sewers and some new infrastructure, but a new convention centre, then you are patted on the back !!
The CEO and senior management of a city council know that the council members are basically "thick as pig sh*t" when it comes to business / money matters, so can run rings around them and tell them "do not worry about this, we are the experts, we will sort it out" !!
The bottom-line for the good of the rate payer the council should be controlled by a professional board of directors, who are instructed to make the council "stick to its knitting" of road, water & sewer. Why a city council has to get involved with pensioner flats or a library, still has me confused.

you sum it up well, however I also have doubts about professional boards of directors. I personally know of a few people who have/are directors who have never run their own business. Another one is bankers, often dishing out advice but no personal experience with an actual business.

But yes, we need councils that are comprised of people who have actual real life business experience. Sadly most of the people who end up there are totally lacking in this.

I also question the experience of the CEOs. Many of these people are serial public service employees amd are seemingly out of touch with reality, and earning vast sums of money and there is seemingly no accountability from any independent governing body.

lakeview3 - 2021-06-18 15:03:00

Lakeview, maybe start attending meetings with likeminded others if you can and call these cowboys out. Also check the attendance of your local councillors. You'll be surprised how few turn up.

mazalinas - 2021-06-18 15:09:00

The problem with Kiwis is that we seem to begrudgingly accept things and just pay evermore, (or we are just already busy enough being at work to keep these often imbeciles employed).
There is no other business that could survive being as inefficiently run and as separately unqualified as most councils.
So try putting quite a few (even just hand-written photocopied) mailers in as many letterboxes as you can manage to see who is as fed up as you are and arrange a weekend day (also inform media ideally) to then all march to the council office and say "we are not paying any longer for this madness, so undo the crazy pay rises immediately for starters, or expect no $$ from us next rates bill time". It would take the Mayor quite something to actually stand up and say why you are all wrong by the sound of it.
(This does of course rely on your bank also agreeing to somehow stop payment as Council's can actually dip into your private accounts (or at least a mortgage anyway)
So there, you can have the satisfaction of being the first of many nationwide protests.

gman35 - 2021-06-18 15:34:00

mazalinas wrote:

Lakeview, maybe start attending meetings with likeminded others if you can and call these cowboys out. Also check the attendance of your local councillors. You'll be surprised how few turn up.

I know I should, unfortunately with my recent health issues and still having to work I can’t afford the time.

Maybe I will in the future. Trouble is it’s a small town, I know lots of people wanting to say something but most are small business people and they have a living not to jeopardise.

I have been several times in the past for various issues, honestly though where is their common sense? Where is the respect from them to ratepayers? Why do they continuously spend money they don’t have? It’s all so exhausting.

These secret meetings are a dangerous thing to be happening in a supposedly democratic society as well.

lakeview3 - 2021-06-18 15:53:00

lakeview3 wrote:

Oh and I haven’t even mentioned how they allowed all the homeless people to come here from out of town and turn this once lovely city into a festering hub of crime! Thanks for nothing eh? Boy are we getting ‘bang’ for our buck!

I don’t think you’ve mentioned that at all.

sparkychap - 2021-06-18 15:56:00

gman35 wrote:

The problem with Kiwis is that we seem to begrudgingly accept things and just pay evermore, (or we are just already busy enough being at work to keep these often imbeciles employed).
There is no other business that could survive being as inefficiently run and as separately unqualified as most councils.
So try putting quite a few (even just hand-written photocopied) mailers in as many letterboxes as you can manage to see who is as fed up as you are and arrange a weekend day (also inform media ideally) to then all march to the council office and say "we are not paying any longer for this madness, so undo the crazy pay rises immediately for starters, or expect no $$ from us next rates bill time". It would take the Mayor quite something to actually stand up and say why you are all wrong by the sound of it.
(This does of course rely on your bank also agreeing to somehow stop payment as Council's can actually dip into your private accounts (or at least a mortgage anyway)
So there, you can have the satisfaction of being the first of many nationwide protests.

I heard on the radio recently that apparently with some councils (or maybe all???) they can now hold unpaid rates over your property in the event you die. So literally the council will either rate us out of our property or kind of reverse mortgage their way into owning it.

lakeview3 - 2021-06-18 15:57:00

sparkychap wrote:

I don’t think you’ve mentioned that at all.

not in this thread anyways….????

Edited by lakeview3 at 3:59 pm, Fri 18 Jun

lakeview3 - 2021-06-18 15:59:00

lakeview3 wrote:

I heard on the radio recently that apparently with some councils (or maybe all???) they can now hold unpaid rates over your property in the event you die. So literally the council will either rate us out of our property or kind of reverse mortgage their way into owning it.

If the ratepayer dies the estate is liable for unpaid rates. What is so surprising about that?

Or, were you meaning something entirely different like a statutory land charge over unpaid rates?

johnston - 2021-06-18 17:20:00

lakeview3 wrote:

I know I should, unfortunately with my recent health issues and still having to work I can’t afford the time.

Maybe I will in the future. Trouble is it’s a small town, I know lots of people wanting to say something but most are small business people and they have a living not to jeopardise.

I have been several times in the past for various issues, honestly though where is their common sense? Where is the respect from them to ratepayers? Why do they continuously spend money they don’t have? It’s all so exhausting.

These secret meetings are a dangerous thing to be happening in a supposedly democratic society as well.

..wait for the restraining order to lapse and jump straight back in Lv????

theguyz1 - 2021-06-18 17:23:00

johnston wrote:

If the ratepayer dies the estate is liable for unpaid rates. What is so surprising about that?

Or, were you meaning something entirely different like a statutory land charge over unpaid rates?

apparently it was something that has changed over the last several years so similar to a statutory land charge, but not entirely the same. That will learn me for not paying more attention and/or writing it down.

I mean you have to ask yourself why pay rates at all if they are going to let you live there and just deduct unpaid rates from the sale of your house?

lakeview3 - 2021-06-18 18:02:00

theguyz1 wrote:

..wait for the restraining order to lapse and jump straight back in Lv????

haha yeah probably!

lakeview3 - 2021-06-18 18:03:00

lakeview3 wrote:

apparently it was something that has changed over the last several years so similar to a statutory land charge, but not entirely the same. That will learn me for not paying more attention and/or writing it down.

I mean you have to ask yourself why pay rates at all if they are going to let you live there and just deduct unpaid rates from the sale of your house?

er because recover from estate is the very last resort and there are plenty of other recourses available before they get to that, including charging your mortgage lender…who tend to get a bit pissy.

sparkychap - 2021-06-18 18:09:00

Lakeview - your comments are universal! We have properties in Kerikeri, Whangarei and Auckland. All of these councils are controlled by their departmental managers not the elected councillors who are just puppets rubber-stamping what has been decided by overpaid so-called "experts" who have degrees, are sometimes not long out of uni and have no life experience, don't read the town's history or research as to why past decisions were made. This is particularly the case in Auckland where so called safety zones are IMPOSED around schools without consultation with the residents or the school involved. In Onehunga they blocked off a street overnight - the residents hired a forktruck an d removed the barriers - they were livid and rightly so - the Council's reaction was to reinstate the barrier and say it was a trial awaiting feedback!

As Lakeview has stated the Council's in quite a few cities and towns are out of control and there seems no way to rein in their spending or stupid decisions. Even voting out the councillors and mayor will not work - the "swamp" needs to be drained behind these inexperienced (in some cases) figureheads. Capricorngirl

mlarkin - 2021-06-19 09:00:00

mlarkin wrote:

Lakeview - your comments are universal! We have properties in Kerikeri, Whangarei and Auckland. All of these councils are controlled by their departmental managers not the elected councillors who are just puppets rubber-stamping what has been decided by overpaid so-called "experts" who have degrees, are sometimes not long out of uni and have no life experience, don't read the town's history or research as to why past decisions were made. This is particularly the case in Auckland where so called safety zones are IMPOSED around schools without consultation with the residents or the school involved. In Onehunga they blocked off a street overnight - the residents hired a forktruck an d removed the barriers - they were livid and rightly so - the Council's reaction was to reinstate the barrier and say it was a trial awaiting feedback!

As Lakeview has stated the Council's in quite a few cities and towns are out of control and there seems no way to rein in their spending or stupid decisions. Even voting out the councillors and mayor will not work - the "swamp" needs to be drained behind these inexperienced (in some cases) figureheads. Capricorngirl

you are so right about ‘the swamp’. I do question why the councillors and mayor don’t speak up. They just look ‘bought’ if they don’t. We have a couple of outspoken councillors and while I don’t agree with all that they say, I do agree with a lot and I also admire their guts to ‘break from the norm’. Plus it makes them look authentic because they question things, seem to have a desire to cut money wastage and actually work for the ratepayers. If only we could get enough honest people in there but unfortunately people keep voting for the sellouts.

As for those secret meetings……well lookee here, here’s just another example of something that was obviously discussed behind closed doors…..6 million dollars of taxpayers and ratepayers money spent buying land to house the homeless people our council allowed to come in from all over New Zealand. Yes folks, well and truly the homeless capital of New Zealand. And right in the middle of an area that was once pleasant and popular with older people in their retirement years. Who would want to live there now?

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/rotorua-daily-post/news/governmen
t-buys-malfroy-rd-and-ranolf-st-block-of-land/4SSLGUEQDSNWHB
LKMITDBORZFA/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#Echo
box=1624000933

I would be absolutely spewing (more than I already am lol) if I lived near there.

The world has gone mad. Shame on the sellouts.????

What happened to the modern gated community that was supposed to be built on that land???? Did they have trouble getting a permit or something? Something stinks about the whole saga. STINKS. (aand it’s not even the H2S lol)

Edited by lakeview3 at 9:29 am, Sat 19 Jun

lakeview3 - 2021-06-19 09:19:00

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/rotorua-daily-post/news/rotorua-h
ousing-crisis-subdivision-unlikely-to-go-ahead-after-2-year-
wait-for-resource-consent/65HQZWUILKV6DXSJE5Y5JG3EPM/

Couldn’t get resource consent eh…..nek minnit…..

Doesn’t look suspicious AT ALL.

lakeview3 - 2021-06-19 09:32:00

lakeview3 wrote:

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/rotorua-daily-po
st/news/rotorua-housing-crisis-subdivision-unlikely-to-go-ah
ead-after-2-year-wait-for-resource-consent/65HQZWUILKV6DXSJE
5Y5JG3EPM/

Couldn’t get resource consent eh…..nek minnit…..

Doesn’t look suspicious AT ALL.

What do you think is suspicious?

sparkychap - 2021-06-19 09:33:00

lakeview3 wrote:

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/ldr/444974/rotor
ua-lakes-council-s-7-deputy-ceos-mp-former-mayor-call-for-in
dependent-review

Puts rates up by 9%, then appoints 7 deputy CEOs and give them pay rises!

I wish I was joking.

Try living in Dunners.....9.75 increase plus a few more in the coming years. Regional council increase about the same, all in a year when folk have reduced incomes/lost jobs because of Covid.
Add to that a dopey green mayor and council who painted coloured spots on the main retail drag during level four so the cars wouldn't run over the pedestrians social distancing (eye roll). A mayor who is hell bent on getting cars out of the city and promotes cycling. buses and walking, yet hitch hikes to and from work (hypocrite) because he's too scared to drive after an accident (another eye roll). A mayor and council who are taking car parks out of the city at an alarming rate, yet making no allowance for parking when the new hospital is built!
Is there something in the water in NZ that's making all these idiots think alike?

hound31 - 2021-06-19 14:14:00

We can't recall these muppets as we don't have the legislation. Once installed they are like vermin, almost impossible to eradicate.

bryshaw - 2021-06-19 14:53:00

I have come to the conclusion that elected councillers throughout NZ are becoming "yes" men and women too afraid of losing if they speak out. Have just read an article from whangarei concerning the "three waters" water reticulation reform proposed by central government. Whangarei council is thinking of pulling out of this as they can see "fishhooks" in the proposal whereby they would be expected to assign to government all their water assets - assets which have just been upgraded. It's all about control!
"Tinkerbell" and her cohorts are basically turning NZ into a satelite of Russia with centralising so many things like education and health control coming from Wellington. This is not efficient nor financially viable. Capricorngirl

mlarkin - 2021-06-19 15:44:00

Local council ownership and running of water services is inefficient and unsustainable. They’ve proven they’re not capable of doing the hard investment required because it’s unpopular.

Edited by sparkychap at 5:39 pm, Sat 19 Jun

sparkychap - 2021-06-19 17:32:00

amasser wrote:

Vote the mayor and councillors out of office. See that Chadwick has been Mayor since 2013 but "the changes needed". Has she done nothing or very little in 8 years?

The people out there that think mayor's and councillors have a say on anything that happens are dreaming. They are only put there to make the general public feel better as they have someone to complain to, the CEO has all the power and doesn't have to answer to the public.

loud_37 - 2021-06-19 19:00:00

lakeview3 wrote:

apparently it was something that has changed over the last several years so similar to a statutory land charge, but not entirely the same. That will learn me for not paying more attention and/or writing it down.

I mean you have to ask yourself why pay rates at all if they are going to let you live there and just deduct unpaid rates from the sale of your house?

if you are a single day late with a payment thats an isntant 10% penalty. I'm assure they'll get both the rates, and penalties that they've generously calculated on top.

bitsnpieces2020 - 2021-06-19 20:04:00

It would be a pretty grim city which only had "road, water & sewer".

tygertung - 2021-06-21 13:17:00

tygertung wrote:

It would be a pretty grim city which only had "road, water & sewer".

and rubbish collection.

Why should ratepayers pay for markets, festivals, gardens and overpaid managers and executives who we can’t vote for?

Councils need to stick to their knitting -providing core services.

Edited by lakeview3 at 3:46 pm, Mon 21 Jun

lakeview3 - 2021-06-21 15:46:00

lakeview3 wrote:

and rubbish collection.

Why should ratepayers pay for markets, festivals, gardens and overpaid managers and executives who we can’t vote for?

Councils need to stick to their knitting -providing core services.

Why should the ratepayers have to pay for rubbish collection? Surely it is not the city's job to dispose of people's personal waste?

Rates might be cheaper if there were no playgrounds or green spaces in a city and no other public places. Commercial areas and residential areas interconnected by roads is all that would be required.

All the existing parks and green spaces and other public spaces could be sold off to commercial interests.

tygertung - 2021-06-22 12:42:00

tygertung wrote:

Why should the ratepayers have to pay for rubbish collection? Surely it is not the city's job to dispose of people's personal waste?

Rates might be cheaper if there were no playgrounds or green spaces in a city and no other public places. Commercial areas and residential areas interconnected by roads is all that would be required.

All the existing parks and green spaces and other public spaces could be sold off to commercial interests.

We were happy to pay directly for the rubbish collection service (because it was cheaper, and better). But you cannot opt out of rubbish collection, well you can, but theres no reduction in rates to go along with it.

Also our (rotorua) council has effectively outsourced water & sewerage to a chinese company. Trilligy I think its called.

Edited by bitsnpieces2020 at 3:50 pm, Tue 22 Jun

bitsnpieces2020 - 2021-06-22 15:47:00

bitsnpieces2020 wrote:

We were happy to pay directly for the rubbish collection service (because it was cheaper, and better). But you cannot opt out of rubbish collection, well you can, but theres no reduction in rates to go along with it.

Also our (rotorua) council has effectively outsourced water & sewerage to a chinese company. Trilligy I think its called.

yes we also paid for an independent rubbish collection. We have flagged it now because as you say we can’t opt out of the rubbish collection by the council. (we used to get a rebate but they stopped that).

I think the water outfit is called Trility??/ who knows just another thing they decided at their secret meetings. ????

I just wish they would fix the blimmen potholes. ????

In thr meantime the house values keep going up so they can keep charging us higher rates for the same s**t service and the inly thing that seems to happen is payrises to unelected managers, ceo and 7 deputies.????

lakeview3 - 2021-06-22 16:07:00

This message was deleted.

kiwilandchch - 2021-06-22 16:14:00

kiwilandchch wrote:

Must be to manage all the homeless wondering the streets ???

if only….

lakeview3 - 2021-06-22 16:22:00

kiwilandchch wrote:

Must be to manage all the homeless wondering the streets ???

No I am not homeless but I often wonder whilst I wander the streets

sparkychap - 2021-06-22 17:17:00

lakeview3 wrote:

In thr meantime the house values keep going up so they can keep charging us higher rates for the same s**t service

Not this old chestnut? I thought even you were smart enough to not believe that rising values equals rising rates.

sparkychap - 2021-06-22 18:45:00

Core council services like local road maintenance, investing in infrastructure like road changes, bridge upgrades, rubbish and recycling services will all be reduced while council focuses on non essential projects. Councils will deprive rate payers of core services to enable funds to be made available to prioritise new migrants, housing, subsidies. Once the core services are run down enough, rates will be increased. Ratepayers will be happy to pay the extra to get the roads fixed. Its a crazy world we live in.

market1 - 2021-06-22 21:18:00

lakeview3 wrote:

…

In thr meantime the house values keep going up so they can keep charging us higher rates for the same s**t service and the inly thing that seems to happen is payrises to unelected managers, ceo and 7 deputies.????

Stop it.
This has been clearly explained to you in the past. You know that is not how it works. Stop perpetuating this myth.

pico42 - 2021-06-22 21:23:00

pico42 wrote:

Stop it.
This has been clearly explained to you in the past. You know that is not how it works. Stop perpetuating this myth.

haha oh yeah that’s funny. ????

Um yeah they do. Be interested to know what you pay. Ours are now on $4000 a year. I wouldn’t mind if I felt it was money well spent….but Nah.

lakeview3 - 2021-06-22 21:30:00

market1 wrote:

Core council services like local road maintenance, investing in infrastructure like road changes, bridge upgrades, rubbish and recycling services will all be reduced while council focuses on non essential projects. Councils will deprive rate payers of core services to enable funds to be made available to prioritise new migrants, housing, subsidies. Once the core services are run down enough, rates will be increased. Ratepayers will be happy to pay the extra to get the roads fixed. Its a crazy world we live in.

that about sums it up doesn’t it?

lakeview3 - 2021-06-22 21:31:00

lakeview3 wrote:

haha oh yeah that’s funny. ????

Um yeah they do. Be interested to know what you pay. Ours are now on $4000 a year. I wouldn’t mind if I felt it was money well spent….but Nah.

In very simple terms (even though it seems you simply won’t be told anything you have already decided you know) rates don’t double because house prices double. Rates double because council costs double.
Relative house prices are the mechanism for apportioning those budgeted costs to individual properties.

Our rates are about $3K. Up from about $2.5k when we bought 15 years ago. The house value has about doubled in that time.

pico42 - 2021-06-22 21:50:00

pico42 wrote:

In very simple terms (even though it seems you simply won’t be told anything you have already decided you know) rates don’t double because house prices double. Rates double because council costs double.
Relative house prices are the mechanism for apportioning those budgeted costs to individual properties.

Our rates are about $3K. Up from about $2.5k when we bought 15 years ago. The house value has about doubled in that time.

I never said my rates hve doubled…..but now I think about it, it’s not far away from that being the case.

All I know is that paying a whole bunch of ‘deputies’ more money ISNT a what I am paying for.

lakeview3 - 2021-06-22 21:58:00

lakeview3 wrote:

I never said my rates hve doubled…..but now I think about it, it’s not far away from that being the case.

All I know is that paying a whole bunch of ‘deputies’ more money ISNT a what I am paying for.

Would you have all the parks and playgrounds, and other public spaces sold off as they are not a core council function?
Would yopu

tygertung - 2021-06-22 22:05:00

tygertung wrote:

Would you have all the parks and playgrounds, and other public spaces sold off as they are not a core council function?
Would yopu

why would I? They are part of core services that I am supposedly paying for, along with the public pool and library

lakeview3 - 2021-06-22 22:08:00

Water rates has now become close to the normal rate fee. That means council rates have almost doubled. This is what happens when public servants no longer serve the public. We expect them to do the right thing, however they have their own agenda.

market1 - 2021-06-22 22:10:00