Mayor and chairman on amalgamation

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 3, Issue 38, 4 March 1986, Page 2

Mayor and chairman on amalgamation

I sympathise fully with the concerns of your correspondents, L. A. West and others, in the Waimarino Bulletin of Tuesday 25 February, writing on the issue of the proposed amalgamation of the Ohakune and Raetihi Boroughs and Waimarino County. While I know these concerns are sincerely held, some of the fears expressed are groundless. One correction must be made. The Waimarino County will not provide two-thirds of the rate revenue of the proposed amalgamated authority. In the financial year to March 1986, the two boroughs, collectively, raised just on one million dollars from rates. The county raised seven hundred and thirty thousand dollars from the same source. This would indicate the broad parameters within which the apportionment of shared costs would be made. However, the more significant protection resides in the adoption of a ward system and the agreement that revenue raised within each existing authority will be spent solely in that author-

ity, apart of course, from the cost of joint administration. My personal preference for this borough in the whole issue remains the same: I would like Ohakune to continue as a separate borough. However, there is no point in fighting absolutely pointless battles when the dice are fully loaded against success. • Take the example of Christchurch. Of four partners to the union providing the nation's future largest city, three remain fully opposed to the notion and yet their amalgamation is' not only proposed but already decreed. What chance our three small authorities? Your correspondents call for a referendum or poll. In terms of the legislation this is a mockery. I presume such a poll would be against the notion of our amalgamation. In the way of all local body polls I would doubt that more than 60% of those on the combined electoral rolls (and, in law it has to be the combined district) would vote. And this is a very high percentage voting turnout. Now, and note carefully, even if this 60% vote 3-1 against amalgamation the poll fails because the law now states that on this issue the 40% of the electorate who did not vote are presumed to be voting for the proposal. Argue democracy until you are blue in the face but you won't change this. My sympathies are strongly with farmers who face massive reductions in income but it would be foolish to believe that this factor is likely to weigh with or sway the Local Government Commission or the expressed intentions of both major political parties in the matter of local government reorganisation. I have fought strenuously to retain some identity for our isolated and wonderfully unique area and to come up with and support a scheme that will still give all of us something of a voice. I believe our proposed union may do this. Think well of the alternatives: a larger authority based in Taumarunui or Taupo, Wanganui or wherever. This may well be more readily afforded but, make no mistake about it, we'd have little voice in whatever

forum was the result of a wider merger. Funnily enough, the Borough of Ohakune has least to lose when considering alternatives: our population is such that we are able to form a district community council and retain many of the existing functions and powers we currently exercise. Our neighbours are not so . fortunate. Raetihi is not likely to achieve the population required for such a council and our county area would, quite simply, melt virtually anonymously into whatever wider unit was set in place. Of course there will be additional initial added costs in our union. For one thing we must provide for a senior executive at a likely salary of $45 ,000 per annum. I cannot imagine redundancy payments to existing staff, all of whom must have jobs provided for them under the proposal.

Costs will accrue but so will savings. The present triplication of many of our costs should be avoided and the benefit of our union of three should surely be in the wider range of services able to be offered from our own resources rather than from outside. I am not the strongest advocate of change to the status quo and I do believe we should be allowed a greater voice and more options in what happens to us. But I do know that one of the options least open to any of the three of us is conserving the status we presently enjoy. In this light I will work hard for what is the most preferable alternative; that of the union of the county with the two boroughs.

W.

Taylor

Mayor Ohakune Borough Council