But, as the MTG saga showed, there will never be any accountability, responsibility or blame taken within Napier City Council, will there? No-one has ever done anything wrong at NCC – “It’s because we have got one or two extremely vocal critics who are stirring the thing up” says Mayor Dalton.
Well, Bill, I’ll happily take credit for being one of those critics – Because you know what? I was right!
I said the buses were a silly idea back in 2011 when they were dreamed up. Their construction, delivery and resulting repairs were a farce in 2012 and in the (2013-14) year they were in operation, virtually no-one used them! – “The poor drivers must be beside themselves – because no-one else is!”
And yet, just as Mayor Dalton’s predecessor pointed the finger of blame for problems with her museum at those capable enough of seeing and reacting to problems much quicker than she and her council could, Mr Dalton blames the critics?
Am I happy the buses are gone? No! Because they were such an elongated, obvious waste of money from the outset – they should never have been allowed to go ahead!
Rather than once again pandering to fly/cruise-by-night tourists, imagine what $1.3 – $2 million could have done for developing projects and initiatives for Napier’s youth, who get blatantly ignored, or community development, or even encouraging economic development in the city!
These are projects and people that call Napier home ALL YEAR ROUND – Not just in cruise season, not just during the holidays, EVERY SINGLE DAY OF THE YEAR – Napier projects and funds for Napier people!
Rather than trying to develop Napier into a city embracing the future and evolving into a new technological and business powerhouse, the council long ago shackled itself to the past by clinging to historically-based tourism as the city’s saviour and in doing so indentured its economy and people into tourist servitude.
I’ll keep critiquing gaping faults like the Deco Buses because I love my city! I want to see it succeed. I don’t want to see it waste its time, money, people and resources on follies like these buses.
I can’t help but wonder how much of it is “Hey, that’s a neat idea – living in a caravan / container / kennel” and how much is an almost subversive attempt to phase out the classic / idealistic NZ “1/4 acre (albeit more like 1/8th acre these days) dream” mentality and make living in a tiny house or shoebox apartment seem more normal or acceptable?
In New Zealand we are very fortunate to have the amount of space we do. Heck, we have room to spare!
New Zealand is geographically bigger than Great Britain, but with only a tiny portion of the population and huge, uninhabited swathes of the country still covered in native bush / farmland / epic, majestically mountainous movie-background terrain that would give the most sure-hooved chamois vertigo.
So, when the inevitable comments focusing on the housing crisis and massively inflated prices in Auckland, Christchurch and (to a lesser extent?) Wellington once again come to the fore as reason for such close-quarters accommodation in New Zealand’s biggest cities, it raises a major question in my mind:
With the rise of E-commerce and so much business internet-based, why does it still “need” to be based in our main centres, exacerbating the high demand / high price problem, while regional cities, like my own home town of Napier, have been struggling to attract skilled workers and businesses in recent years?
• The average (full-sized, with a yard) house price in Hawke’s Bay is somewhere around $350,000 – $500,000 – a third to a quarter of those in Auckland.
• We have the infrastructure, including UFB network access, to easily operate a national / international level “E-business” from Hawke’s Bay.
• With its smaller population (more room, less congestion) and wonderful natural features encouraging healthier, outdoor pastimes, Hawke’s Bay has a relaxed lifestyle second to none!
Yet where is all the commercial and business development focus?
The question is often asked “What planet do politicians live on?” In the case of Hawke’s Bay’s local body politicians the answer must be “Planet Teflon” – as nothing ever seems to stick, especially accountability.
From storage space shortages, to wildly inaccurate consultants’ reports on projected visitor motions (pun intended); things did not get off to a good start for Napier’s revamped cultural and historical hub – “MTG”, or “Museum, Theatre, Gallery”.
Now, after another council-commissioned consultant’s report – The “McDermott Miller Report” has been released into just what went wrong, where, how badly and how it could be fixed.
I have read the report and it makes pretty good, common sense. Perhaps its only down-fall is that it cost Napier rate-payers the equivalent of New Zealand’s average annual wage to tell them what a Napier ratepayer on the average wage could have told them after a visit or two to MTG.
After a flurry of publicity and changes in the last couple weeks, I now understand that Napier City Council announced they will not be blaming, firing, or holding anyone accountable for MTG’s much-publicised failings.
REALLY??
NO-ONE???
In fact, the council appears to have taken a “move along – nothing to see here!” (Inferences like that will NOT help visitor numbers, by the way) approach. Napier City Council’s new CEO Wayne Jack even said he was “tiring of the barrage of criticism” being levelled at MTG.
My advice to Wayne in helping avoid such situations is simple:
Of course, how silly of us – it’s all the rate-paying public and fact-quoting media’s fault! What an absolute load of imperious rubbish!
I was saddened not to hear or see any rebuttal from Hawke’s Bay Today Editor, Andrew Austin, supporting his reporters or readers / online commenters on such a ludicrous statement to what is a very public issue.
In the real world, when things this big go this wrong, people lose their jobs. MTG is currently going through a round of staff redundancies as a result of their current review. If MTG’s marketing department had indeed ignored a large portion of the community as potential visitors because of their socio-economic status, as McDermott Miller claims then, yes, heads certainly need to roll – A region’s culture and history is made up from everyone’s input, so no-one should be exempted from being able to view and appreciate it. But you can’t help but feel that deeper problems, well out of the control of staff, have not been accurately accounted for.
How are Mrs Arnott and former NCC CEO and MTG project manager Neil Taylor, despite their deep involvement in MTG’s development, apparently completely free from criticism or accountability?
Current Mayor, Bill Dalton says he “did his apprenticeship” under Arnott and the majority of the current council is unchanged from the one led by Arnott for so many years, so there is doubtlessly still a sense (or burden) of loyalty there.
But there appears to be far less love between current council CEO Wayne Jack and his predecessor – Jack having to tidy up a number of messes left over from the previous regime in his first months in office. In fact the way in which Jack does a number of things is a complete reversal to Taylor’s modus operandi, so it would not have been too surprising to have seen Taylor being “Thrown under the Art Deco Bus (another of his projects)”, But no – no accountability there either
Come to think of it, any and all past and current Napier city councillors involved in committees for and voting on MTG’s errant planning and enactment have somehow escaped any and all responsibility or accountability for some very expensive mistakes that are very embarrassing to Napier.
How is that fair?
All this MTG publicity couldn’t come at a worse time for the “Friends of MTG” programme, as they are in the middle or their annual membership renewal programme.
My wife and I are “Friends of MTG” and have been for a number of years – so any “conflicts of interest” claims that those mentioned above have completely avoided will doubtlessly now be levelled at me…. 🙁
I and a number of my fellow “MTG Friends” think for all its faults MTG does indeed have a lot of unfulfilled potential – it’s still a bit of a “blank canvas” if you will. But we also want to see those responsible for some major errors held accountable for their actions.
What do other “MTG Friends” think?
I would expect this year’s membership numbers depend on it.
Napier, its history, present, and future, its art and culture deserves better.
My Dad with his new granddaughter, his “Little Angel”.
My Dad died last month.
It wasn’t expected but it was peaceful at least. He’d had a cold for a week or two beforehand and it appears to have quietly and suddenly developed into pneumonia. He died in his sleep early on a Sunday morning aged 78.
My dad had a secret identity – he was Superman!
Well, to me at least.
He couldn’t fly (as far as I was aware) and he didn’t wear a cape or his undies on the outside of his clothes – that would be far too flashy or attention-seeking for this typical, humble, kiwi bloke.
But he was my hero.
He was a loving, caring, loyal and attentive father and husband and I already miss him more than I could ever describe.
While 78 may be relatively early age to die (the average age of a New Zealand male is 77), he packed a whole lot of life into those 78 years.
He grew up around Lake Waikaremoana in northern Hawke’s Bay in the 1930’s and 40’s where his father was the Government Ranger. You couldn’t make fun of Dad when he said the old line of “Walking a mile, barefooted, through snow to school”, because he really had!
He lived the ultimate “Good Keen Man” lifestyle – hunting, fishing and tramping through some of Hawke’s Bay’s wildest and most beautiful areas.
Dad’s mum and dad divorced (he never talked much about this, but it must have been highly unusual for the time and I think he held this against his mum for some time) and when Granddad retired as a ranger, he and Dad moved down to Napier.
One house they lived in was on Carlyle Street (now part of the Countdown carpark) and another was where York Avenue and Wharerangi Road now meet in Tamatea. The council enacted the Public Works Act to buy their property. Dad was always a little disappointed that the grass ‘park’ area that remains (originally part of his home’s back yard) was big enough for another home to be built on the site but was not returned to our family.
Dad had many talents – He once made it into Napier’s Daily Telegraph when he built a scale model of the city’s new St John’s Cathedral
Dad lived in that (now mythical) age where jobs were plentiful. You walked out of one, down the road and straight into another. One of Dad’s many jobs was mowing the runway at Napier / Hawke’s Bay Airport – Air-FIELD would have been a more appropriate title, as this was in the years before the tarmac runway. Earlier this year a friend of mine who works at the airport now happened upon some old invoices and letters of Dad’s from his time there (50-60 odd years ago!) that were unearthed when an old hangar was demolished. Dad was stoked.
Dad owned numerous cars and loved all things mechanical. Despite never being a qualified mechanic, he worked in a number of garages and was head-hunted a number of times by other workshops.
A Firman’s advertisement featuring Dad from Hawke’s Bay Photo News 1963
He met Mum and they ‘dated’ for 14 years. Dad’s marriage proposal was allegedly “Well, I suppose we had better do something about it.” I (an only child – Mum and Dad had me when they were quite old) came along 11 months later. Dad gave up his outdoors lifestyle to look after his family, but he was still involved with running the local Mountain Safety and Deerstalkers’ Associations for a number of years.
As a father and husband he was outstanding. He was caring and considerate, always helpful and encouraging. He must have been at least a little disappointed that I never took a major interest in his loves of hunting and fishing, or cars, but he never showed it. He was very proud in later years of my writing and activity in Napier. He kept clippings of anything I’d written or appeared in the newspaper for.
He supported me in whatever I wanted to do. He helped coach my school and junior club soccer and cricket teams. If I tried and failed at something he encouraged me to figure out what I had done wrong and try again the right way. He was very patient.
He was always very fair and when making a big decision, like buying my first car (or even small decisions for that matter) he would list all the positive points…… (here it comes)… BUT… then list all the negative points. It was infuriating, BUT (damn it!) ingrained in me that there are always two sides to every decision, story or argument that have to be considered and taken into account.
He made it into the paper again near the end of his working days. Here he is with what remained of Napier’s iconic light arches that used to straddle Emerson St at its Hastings and Dalton St intersections.
Dad LOVED learning stuff – he was always open to information and ideas – something I’m very glad I inherited from him. Even in retirement, Dad was always busy with little projects – fixing this, making that, finding a better way to do things.
Dad never once insulted or belittled me – something that can’t be said for a lot of other people.
As I said, my Dad was Superman. But even Superman has his Kryptonite. Dad’s was his health.
I told Dad emphatically on a number of these health scares that he was not allowed to die until he had grandchildren. With the early passing of my grandparents I never got to interact with or remember mine and I wanted my children to have that experience.
Dad and Mum were always supportive when my wife and I were having trouble starting a family and as a result Dad was super-proud when his granddaughter arrived last year. She was his “Little Princess” and “Little Angel”. One of the last times we talked he was going to solder up some angel wings for her.
Dad had complained of feeling tired and sluggish in the weeks before he died. But, as the typical Kiwi bloke, he took the stance of “if it hasn’t fallen off, don’t worry about it”. I spoke to him on the phone the day before he died and he said he was fine.
But he wasn’t.
While his mind and spirit were perfectly capable, his body was not and he leaves an immeasurably huge hole in my life.
Goodbye, Dad. I will always love you. If I can live my life half as well as you lived yours and be half as good a father and husband as you were, I’ll be a very happy man.
Another Firman’s advertisement featuring Dad in Hawke’s Bay Photo News, this time from March 1960. Hawke’s Bay Photo News available to view via HB Knowledge Bank
They plan to stop the service in May and sell the buses to try and recover some ratepayer money.
I think NCC may have already missed a great opportunity to get the people of Napier a good price for “Bertie and Barb’s Busted Buses” by not hocking them off even earlier than May.
With Hastings’ annual equine event attracting so much publicity, attention and so much money from a very affluent sector of society, surely the last couple of weeks would have been the best time and place to sell vehicles with massive price-tags that are so used to having only a few occupants:
For those who don’t get the Hawke’s Bay Today, here’s my letter to the editor that was printed in Wednesday’s edition in relation to “FindlayGate” – the CEO of HB Cricket scoring 307 against a team of schoolboys in a match last Saturday.
It has been very interesting listening to peoples opinions, which seem split pretty much 50/50 on whether his actions were correct. Here’s my opinion for what it’s worth:
(Note: while the grade they play in does have a “split-cricket” component, I discovered after writing this that that part of the competition actually finished at Christmas. This round is straight 45 overs each, but they still break at 20 overs and my opinion still stands that Tech should have declared at that stage when they were 300/1)
Grown man scores 307 against a team of young schoolboys. Nothing to be proud of there, really.
I was playing on the neighbouring pitch on Saturday, nearly got hit by a couple of the “towering sixes” and was getting quite thoroughly depressed for St Johns’ up and coming young cricketers watching the ever-increasing score line.
Tech and St Johns were playing in a grade that has a “split level” game – The team batting first bats for 20 overs, the two teams have a break and the batting side decide whether they will declare, or bat on. At 20 overs Tech were at around 305 for 1 – a massive score in any grade or competition and, in hindsight, around 125 more runs than their opposition would ultimately get.
We were watching their game between overs on our pitch and thinking Tech would rightfully and more importantly, SPORTINGLY, declare. But they didn’t and as reported went on to make a rather farcical 578 – a score which not even the Black Caps could make.
Throughout New Zealand clubs and schools have a hard time attracting and keeping players, both young and old. The ultimate goal is to get them playing a sport, inspire them at a young age and help them develop into successful, young sportspeople. I didn’t see much for any Hawke’s Bay cricketer, young or old, to be inspired by in Tech’s tactics in that game.
The credit in this game really goes to the St Johns’ boys, who never gave up. They played on despite rather massive odds and took some stunning catches later in their fielding innings. From where we were playing, they looked like a very young, but commendably committed future stars of the game.
Andrew Frame
Secretary and Player
Napier Old Boys’ Marist Cricket Club
My wife, Olivia, is an absolute whiz in the kitchen. She is always following new trends, making new dishes or planning fantastic themed feasts. We seldom eat the same thing twice.
Wherever possible she tries to tie in part of the carol lyrics to the dish – i.e. “Partridge in a Pear Tree” will usually contain pears to some degree, or there will be some sort of alliteration or similar tie-in. It really takes a fair bit of dedication and imagination to pull off!
Parents-to-be please note at this point: When baby arrives and you want to eat dinner, it’s absolutely guaranteed that Junior will too – ruling out any opportunity for you to:
A/ Have dinner together.
B/ Have dinner at your regular time.
C/ If you DO get it cooked at the usual time you won’t get around to eating it together at any temperature above tepid.
So while Olivia supplied our baby with dinner, I took to the kitchen to make the meals. This is not something that is usually advised unless a fire extinguisher, paramedics and Civil Defence are on stand-by.
As it turned out, the results weren’t too bad!
Day 1 – A Partridge in a Pear Tree: Meal: Provolone-Filled, Prosciutto-Wrapped Pork Burgers with Poached Pear Topping Reasoning: The Pears for the pear tree, all the “P” ingredients for alliteration.
Day 2 – Two Turtle Doves: Meal: Flour Crust Poisson with Steamed Vegetables Reasoning: This was an awesome idea we got from a Jamie Oliver cookbook. The Poisson being a small bird like a dove, cooks itself in a flour and water crust that ends up hard like a turtle’s shell! We add the broccoli, which looks like a tree, for extra birdy-ness.
Day 3 – Three French Hens: Meal: Coq Au Riesling Reasoning: Chicken thighs (hen) cooked in a very French-sounding casserole (we’ll just ignore the fact that Riesling comes from Germany and DON’T MENTION THE WAR!). Very yum!
Day 4 – Four Calling Birds: Meal: Blueberry, Banana and Bacon Tart Reasoning: We researched this dish and discovered that it isn’t actually “Calling Birds”, but “Colly Birds” (otherwise known as “Blackbirds”). So we often borrow from another old rhyme and make some variation on “Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie.” Last time we made chicken pie. This year we went for a big “B” alliteration “Black Birds” / “Blueberry, Banana and Bacon”. It was BEAUTIFUL!
Day 5 – Five Gold Rings: Meal: Panko-fried Courgette Fettuccini Reasoning: I cut courgettes from our own garden into rings (ok, “coins”, technically), coated them in panko breadcrumbs and shallow fried them, before tossing them in fettuccini.
Day 6 – Six Geese a Laying: Meal: Baked Eggs and Wilted Rocket Leaves Reasoning: Simple one this time – eggs are laid. We used regular chicken eggs, not goose eggs, though.
Day 7 – Seven Swans a Swimming: Meal: Poached Baby Vegetables Reasoning: Baby vegetables “swimming” in wine.
Day 8 – Eight Maids a Milking: Meal: Beef Burgers Topped with Goats’ Cheese and Baked Baby Beetroot. Reasoning: The burgers are made from an animal that gets milked and the goats’ cheese is a result of the same process. The beetroot is there because it goes beautifully with goats’ cheese.
Day 9 – Nine Ladies Dancing: Meal: Antipasti Platter Reasoning: Olivia stopped (and really missed) eating soft cheeses, cured meats etc. (all the “no-no” foods) while she was pregnant. So the promise of finally being able to eat them again made this lady so happy she wanted to dance!
Day 10 – Ten Lords a Leaping: Meal: Lamb Chops with Bean and Mustard Salad Reasoning: Lambs, like lords (allegedly) love to leap. As do the mustard seeds when you cook them in hot oil for the dressing on the (“Spring” – get it?) Bean Salad.
Day 11 – Eleven Pipers Piping: Meal: Walnut, Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni Reasoning: Pretty straight forward again – Cannelloni looks like pipes and you have to ‘pipe’ the filling into them!
Day 12 – Twelve Drummers Drumming: Meal: Deconstructed Duck Drumsticks with Kohl Rabi and Cherry Salad Reasoning: We were going to use self-explanatory duck drumsticks for this dish, but they sold out the day before we went to do it. So I used duck breast, some creative licence and alliteration to call them “Deconstructed Drumsticks”.
So there we go, another year of deliciousness done and dusted! Many thanks to all the Facebook and Twitter friends and followers who liked and commented on the dishes!
Wherever possible, we sourced ingredients from our own garden, the Napier Farmers’ Market, local greengrocers, butchers etc. For the more specialised ingredients, we went to Gourmet Direct and Vetro – any Napier foodie’s best friends!
For those who are unaware, “Gigatown” is a competition being run by Chorus over the next year or so.
The winning city / town of will receive:
“The fastest internet in the Southern hemisphere – Chorus will make a special one gigabit per second (1Gbps) wholesale service available in the winning Gigatown at a special price and a Gigatown development fund – a $200,000 fund provided by Chorus and Alcatel Lucent’s Connect will support entrepreneurs and innovators taking new services over Gigabit fibre to market for Gigatown.”
I’m all for Napier becoming the first city in the southern hemisphere to have gigabit internet speeds. I can see just how much of a benefit our city and region could gain from such a digital asset. At the very least it is a way to engage, employ and empower Hawke’s Bay’s technologically-savvy youth and maybe even keep some of them from leaving the region in droves as they currently do.
At the most, it can put us at the forefront of the digital world and create massive financial, employment and social gains for our region. That’s why I’ve become a “#GigatownNapier ambassador.”
HOW the competition is currently structured leaves me more than a little cold, though.
The first stage of the competition is all about getting as many people to “hashtag” (“#Gigatown(insert location here)”) your town’s Gigatown handle on as many forms of media as inhumanely possible.
This can, of course, backfire with lots of people getting tired of seeing or using the Gigatown hashtag very quickly – social media is, after all, a very fast moving, trend setting (and following), constantly changing and fickle.
It all seems a little “Spam-like” to me (although there are rules and guidelines to help avoid this).
Currently leading the “#Hashtag Section” is Wanaka – where a simple ham sandwich from a lake-front cafe can set you back a whopping $10 (this was what sticks in my mind from the last time I was there), with almost 70,000 points. Oamaru, the “Steampunk” capital of New Zealand second (I’m pretty sure Steampunk technology isn’t internet compatible, though) is second, 37,000 points behind.
Napier is 14th
There are, apparently, conversion factors to be taken into consideration here – towns with smaller populations (like Wanaka and Oamaru, for example) appear to get more points per capita / hashtag, than bigger population centres. But this will start to even out as the competition proceeds, so we’re told.
Under this basis, let’s all just hope the likes of Otira don’t get too involved, or they’ll smoke the lot of us!
All the hashtag noise has also been a bit of a distraction from recent problems Chorus has been having with the government and the Commerce Commission over “unbundling” and the rolling out of New Zealand’s Ultra-Fast Broadband (“UFB”) network.
It has been interesting to note, too, that while the promise of gigabit internet speeds has been raising a lot of interest, the usage and uptake of “the next big tech thing” – Ultra-Fast Broadband in New Zealand has been a pretty slow. Despite the government and providers strongly promoting the use of UFB and installing the infrastructure for it around large portions of metropolitan New Zealand over the past few years, it has been gaining momentum only recently.
Rather than making the most noise, I’m all for the winning town being the one with the most substance.
Napier deserves an opportunity like this.
We have the port, airport and roads facilitating the transit of goods – export being our biggest earner and the servile tourism industry being a big portion of the region’s economy, but a poor earner for those involved.
Inject gigabit internet technology into Hawke’s Bay and I think we could foreseeably overtake at least one of those sectors. In doing so we would also massively increase the number of skilled workers, increase the wages, in doing so local boost consumer spending and launch the region’s economy into the stratosphere.
Regardless of what happens in the competition, whether Napier becomes #GigatownNapier or not, I still think this is a great opportunity for Napier and Hawke’s Bay.
I went along to the first that Napier “Gigatown Education Seminar” hosted by Ryan Jennings and I was impressed by the passion and drive I saw and heard from everyone at the event to see this sort of thing happen for Napier.
For too long Napier has been chained to the past. Over recent years I have felt we are just out of reach of that one thing that will get Hawke’s Bay out of its current economic doldrums. This is a great opportunity to thrust ourselves through the present and into the future.
Be it with Gigabit internet speeds, or with Ultra-Fast Broadband, this is a great step in the right direction and an opportunity that cannot be wasted!
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s a Superman action figure from my childhood!
I am a big kid at heart. I loved my childhood and part of me still clings to it with all its might. I’ve even kept a number of my favourite toys – GI Joes, MASK vehicles and Star Wars action figures.
Whenever I look at him I feel happy. I also feel like having a “Bubble O’ Bill” ice cream – as my folks bought me one just after the action figure (It must have been a very good day).
This, of course may mean very little to you, but it means everything to me. As it’s not really the action figure that has imprinted itself upon my memory, but rather the stage in my life that it was bought.
I was a child of the 80’s and still think it must surely have been the best decade to have been a kid – in terms of toys, movies, TV and just the general vibe of the time. It would have been 1985 when I got Superman (the toy and Ice cream were released around that same time). I would have been 8 years old and at Tamatea Primary School learning the educational and social fundamentals of life and discovering the joys of cricket (“Kiwi Cricket” was released around then too).
Toys played an important part in my life, though. I’m an only child, so for a lot of the time I had to keep myself entertained. It was a bit of a lonely existence, but it helped develop a fantastically creative imagination. I played out TV shows, movies, epic war battles and intimate family moments with my toys. They weren’t just toys, they were my friends too.
All these childhood memories have been coming back to me recently with the imminent arrival of our baby.
I guess I was feeling scared, as I felt that once we had a child ourselves, we had to stop being child-like. After all, being a parent was the most grown-up thing you could be as a kid, wasn’t it? I wasn’t ready to let go of that part of my life just yet.
A few days after our baby was born, my wife and I managed to get some time to sit down and watch Toy Story 3. The opening titles are home movies of Andy (Woody and Buzz Lightyear’s owner) growing up and playing with his beloved toys over the years; right up until he is about to head off to college – that big “adult” step.
Watching the opening credits I bawled my eyes out, but with happy tears. As I realised I was not seeing the end of my childhood, but the beginning of my daughter’s. We had years and years of happy times like I had experienced ahead of us.
While memory’s irresistible pull will always keep me anchored to my past, there is a long, bright future ahead of us – and a second childhood to look forward to.
Question: Does it truly matter if a City / Regional / District councillor wears a tie or not?
Answer: No!
Hawke’s Bay’s local authorities saw reasonable levels of change thanks to the recent elections. Not great, but reasonable.
Voters elected new councillors who they hoped would ‘stick their necks out’ on issues, rather than leave them as the last thing the public saw just above the sand (or other orifaces).
They voted in people whose necks could look left and right to see both sides of an issue. Look forwards to guide us into the future and backwards to help us avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, rather than staring in the same old direction that habit, instruction or sycophancy had seized their predecessors’.
I don’t care what our councillors wear or how they wear it. I care about what they DO as councillors for my city and for my region.
The publicised actions, attitude and decisions of Regional Council Chairman Wilson over recent years have given me little reason to have any faith in him as a representative of the Hawke’s Bay region, let alone as any form of men’s style guru. He should leave that to the experts – Chairman Ralph Lauren and Councillor Tom Ford, perhaps.
I wish the likes of Hawke’s Bay Today would get their focus and reporting back on the matters that have an actual bearing on the present and future of our great region.
Far bigger, more important issues currently hang around Hawke’s Bay’s neck!
![Superman[1]](https://i0.wp.com/napierinframe.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Superman1.jpg)
