Sandy Milne

I hope the seven Whakatāne district councillors who put their names to the advertorials supporting one of the losing contenders in the regional council by-election have learned a lesson.

Thousands of voters had more common sense than these incumbent councillors. Ratepayers should ask Simon Watts, New Zealand’s minister of local government, to step in and appoint a commissioner to replace the councillors.

Luca’s victory was so impressive that he would be the obvious choice as commissioner, and far less costly for ratepayers.

The majority of Luca’s “Magnificent Seven” opponents were the very people who thwarted his effort to keep rates down and have the council live within its means when he was our mayor. That is all documented and is an indictment of the 2022-2025 council.

Regular Beacon readers know of the costly decisions I am referring to, which include: 1) The thankfully aborted boat harbour fiasco, which Luca emphatically and publicly opposed from the outset.

2) Matatā multi-million-dollar wastewater plan when there was little or no risk to public health (the main justification). I am a microbiology scientist and asked the former mayor for a briefing on the science on this. Luca’s conclusions were sound.

3) Luca opposed Matatā as a place for future development based on seismic and debris-flow risks.

4) Luca strongly and publicly opposed the costly tart-up of the district council building.

5) Luca was against the costly Rex Morpeth Park plans, reminding us that there are other priorities, like critical infrastructure.

6) Luca was strongly commending projects that could generate income for ratepayers (solar farm at Whakatāne Airport)

I am mindful of the fact that regional councils New Zealand-wide will be disbanded in two years, around the time of our next local body elections.

I am trying to persuade our former mayor to stand as the first mayor for the new Unitary Council where we will hopefully see the amalgamation of Rotorua with councils in the Eastern Bay. If anyone thinks that there is a better person for that new position, they should name him or her ASAP.

I am surprised that our current mayor did not advise our seven councillors of the risks they were taking in being associated with the paid advertorials. Surely, he knew there would be an embarrassing backlash?

And, if regional councillor Mawera Karetai wasn’t out of order by so publicly supporting Luca’s main opponent, I ask how else such action could be described.