$5500 conference trip OK

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 6, Issue 235, 15 March 1988, Page 3

$5500 conference trip OK

A $5500 conference trip is in store for four Waimarino District Council representatives. The expenditure was the subject of some debate and mirth at the last district council steering committee meeting. The conference is the annual Local Government Association gettogether to be held in Christchurch in June. The association is an

organisation that combines the former Municipalities and Counties Associations. District manager John Murrihy said it would cost about $5500 to send two senior staff and two councillors. Ohakune Mayor Bill Taylor said it sounded like great expense but Waimarino was going into a new era and it was important that the council took every learning opportunity it

could. He emphasised that as a retiring councillor he had no axe to grind in the matter. He said the conference would be important because many Cabinet members and heads of government departments would be present, and the government's new local goverr.ment strategy was sure to be unveiled there. County chairman Con Heinold said ihe cost

was a lot of money and the conference was a waste of time. Cr Taylor: "Not to a municipality." Cr Heinold asked how man'y of the remits tabled at these conferences ever got through. Mr Murrihy pointed out that in the past each of the three merging councils previously used to send a representative at a cost of about $2000 each. Cr Taylor remarked that at $5500 "we're saving". He added: "Remits are not the main affair. My God, I still remember the one about sheep urinating off trucks. I'm sure nothing's happened to that." Raetihi town clerk Hope Vaughan said that actually the matter had been pursued officially. Chairman Garrick Workman said: "Let's get back to the motion (to send the delegates). Referring to the sheep urination remit, Cr Margaret Horne said: "The motion!" Only Cr Heinold voted against the motion.