| Newsletter #5 - June 3 2019 Hello again! As always, welcome to the new subscribers, it's pretty awesome to see the interest growth. Remember you can see all the previous newsletters HERE I took a break on the newsletter last week - I know that's depressing but you'll be fine. This short one should make up for it and get you fully back up to speed. So let's do it :) The Council Budget As well as the Central Government budget we also had our local one - and it was a real doozy. By that I mean it was show fest by all the Councillors and the Mayor. I sat through it and there were speeches galore to be had by all at the meeting. They were justifying all sorts of things, (mainly themselves) so it was clearly all about starting their re-election campaigns. In a nutshell, from that meeting and the days since, you will be receiving a property rates increase, water rates increase, and an increase in the fees for property developments and renovation permits. Goff was proud to allocate $250,000 for graffiti removal - but that was just a reinstatement of a fund that was removed last year. The fun part was watching Christine Fletcher state how "distinctly underwhelmed" she was by the budget, but we all expected that to happen, given she is best mates with Tamihere now. In the end, the budget was the budget. Money will be spent on many different things that polarises the community. The election bribery is well underway. Continuing with the budget theme, the free public transport to kids on public holidays and weekends was approved. Personally I have a few issues with this, mainly because there is no such thing as a free lunch, why weekends and public holidays only, and do they have to be accompanied by an adult? I ask that last question because I'm concerned the transport operators will suddenly have to increase their workload to become baby sitters. It's worrying. If money is going to be spent providing free public transport, let's instead offer it to the workers in the CBD and zones where the train stations are prevalent. If the end goal is to reduce traffic congestion, then let's support it by being smarter about it. I'll have more to say on this soon. The Budget Blowouts Sadly there has been another expenditure, this time it's on the Aotea renovations. We are being told that it is due to the cladding needing replacement, but this sudden need for more cash is yet again seemingly done without proper investigation. The contractors simply tell the Council they need more money, offer up a reason, and no digging is done to find out what is being spent where. If it was on a Councillors own property, and the money was coming from their own wallets they would be wanting to know about every nail and screw, but because it's a big renovation, and not their own dosh being handed out, they don't bother asking hard questions and just trust the contractors implicitly. That's just wrong and I won't be allowing that under my watch. I will be asking a tonne of questions, asking to see documentation, and visiting sites like this to see for myself. The contractors won't like it, but too bad. Pets On Transport. It's confirmed! Auckland Transport will be doing a trial run of pets on trains starting this month and running for three in total. Only small pets, they must be in a carrier, and it seems it will only be during off-peak hours. Basically AT are copying the system roll-out from Wellington. I watch on with interest. Cyclepath Is A GO! NZTA have now confirmed that construction of a shared cycle and walk path on the Auckland harbour bridge will start in 2020. From what I understand it is a new design and not the one that was put forward by Skypath. Did You See This!?!? It's actually awesome. This is Volodymyr Zelensky is the new President of Ukraine. He's not a politician, he is in fact a TV personality. His campaign was basically won by utilising the spread of awareness on Social Media - which is great because that's a big part of my plan as well. But the thing is, the really important point about his win, is that people around the world are breaking free and speaking loud and clear with their votes for people that are not long time politicians or bureaucrats. I'm Keeping Her Spirit Alive I didn’t agree with a lot of her ideas, and I certainly didn’t agree with her refusal to pay rates - but there were some things she pushed for that I do back and would like to see come to fruition. Penny Bright will live on and still have a voice as I will be doing a major part of what she was fighting for - opening the books, transparency, and removing the hidden payments of buddy-buddy deals. I want to stop side-hustles, the deals in the back rooms. Standby for my plans on this. It’s also kinda ironic that she was a welder - that was my first qualification when I was 16. It Worries Me. Let's start with some legal facts. A state of emergency can be declared locally by a Mayor and nationally by a Minister. These emergencies are set for 7 days, but can be extended as needed. A “Climate Emergency” declaration is not a real thing. It is 100% symbolic, a gesture, and depending on an individual persons nature towards such things, the gesture can either be classed as solid or hollow. If a Council votes to signal a “Climate Emergency” then they better have a damn good plan in place or they will expose themselves as the ultimate virtue signallers. And, given that Councillor Penny Hulse has just announced that she will present a proposal to Committee in June for a vote to declare an emergency, and that she has said this on the same day that the students are protesting, tends to lend itself towards a signal of the highest order. There's approximately 500 cities around the world that have done it. On our own islands, Nelson has done it, Environment Canterbury has done it, and a few in Marlborough have been vocal about doing it. Thankfully though, the Mayor for Malborough has said there is no need to do it as the work is already being done to combat any climate change issues. Phew. Some common sense finally. Don't expect much from me when it comes to declaring an emergency. I will however work hard with all the right people to come up and instigate plans to reduce our carbon footprint - but I'm not a person that runs around beating a drum while yelling "the sky is falling..." The First Job In Office. Probably the second job actually. The first one will be finding my way around and working out all the different departments that need sorting. So we'll call it the second job now. That will be a meeting. A meeting with the Council legal team to find out what can and can't be done about the CCO's. Panuku, AT and the RFA are all disasters. But they are protected and I need to find the legal ramifications of making changes - and of course what changes I can actually make. The Council appoints 50% of the boards, but I need to know exactly how the rest of the boards are sorted and what can be done to change them. I know a lot of people, real people from the real working world that would be the right people to be on the boards keeping an eye on, (and running) these entities. For all our benefits. We need Successful people from specific trades and industries need to be brought in. No more clipboard holding, degree grabbers. Instead, people with genuine worldly experience. There's even a lot of retirees who I reckon I could convince to come out of the woodwork to help. But first, sorry second, I need to talk to the legal team - you know - otherwise I'd just be another empty promise campaigner paying for billboards around town claiming that I'll fire the AT board...Oh hang on, someones been doing that recently... Alright, that's it for Newsletter #5. Have a great week, I'll be in touch again soon. Thanks for your interest. My Video Library All my videos such as "The Engineer" are available to watch on the website. You can find the videos HERE. This Mayoral campaign is being fought on two fronts: The newer world of social media, and the old-school way with print and advertising. Your help in this fight is genuinely appreciated. If you have any friends or family, work colleagues, or community groups that would benefit in hearing more about our plans, please do inform them. Forward them this email, let them know about the social media pages, and of course, tell them about the website where they can subscribe to this newsletter. I sincerely thank you for your interest and support. |
Newsletter #5 - June 3 2019 | |
Hello again!
As always, welcome to the new subscribers, it's pretty awesome to see the interest growth.
Remember you can see all the previous newsletters HERE
I took a break on the newsletter last week - I know that's depressing but you'll be fine. This short one should make up for it and get you fully back up to speed.
So let's do it :)
| |
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As well as the Central Government budget we also had our local one - and it was a real doozy. By that I mean it was show fest by all the Councillors and the Mayor. I sat through it and there were speeches galore to be had by all at the meeting. They were justifying all sorts of things, (mainly themselves) so it was clearly all about starting their re-election campaigns. In a nutshell, from that meeting and the days since, you will be receiving a property rates increase, water rates increase, and an increase in the fees for property developments and renovation permits.
Goff was proud to allocate $250,000 for graffiti removal - but that was just a reinstatement of a fund that was removed last year.
The fun part was watching Christine Fletcher state how "distinctly underwhelmed" she was by the budget, but we all expected that to happen, given she is best mates with Tamihere now.
In the end, the budget was the budget. Money will be spent on many different things that polarises the community.
| |
The election bribery is well underway. | |
Continuing with the budget theme, the free public transport to kids on public holidays and weekends was approved. Personally I have a few issues with this, mainly because there is no such thing as a free lunch, why weekends and public holidays only, and do they have to be accompanied by an adult?
I ask that last question because I'm concerned the transport operators will suddenly have to increase their workload to become baby sitters. It's worrying.
If money is going to be spent providing free public transport, let's instead offer it to the workers in the CBD and zones where the train stations are prevalent. If the end goal is to reduce traffic congestion, then let's support it by being smarter about it.
I'll have more to say on this soon.
| |
Sadly there has been another expenditure, this time it's on the Aotea renovations. We are being told that it is due to the cladding needing replacement, but this sudden need for more cash is yet again seemingly done without proper investigation.
The contractors simply tell the Council they need more money, offer up a reason, and no digging is done to find out what is being spent where.
If it was on a Councillors own property, and the money was coming from their own wallets they would be wanting to know about every nail and screw, but because it's a big renovation, and not their own dosh being handed out, they don't bother asking hard questions and just trust the contractors implicitly.
That's just wrong and I won't be allowing that under my watch. I will be asking a tonne of questions, asking to see documentation, and visiting sites like this to see for myself. The contractors won't like it, but too bad.
| |
|
It's confirmed! Auckland Transport will be doing a trial run of pets on trains starting this month and running for three in total. Only small pets, they must be in a carrier, and it seems it will only be during off-peak hours. Basically AT are copying the system roll-out from Wellington.
I watch on with interest.
| |
| |
|
NZTA have now confirmed that construction of a shared cycle and walk path on the Auckland harbour bridge will start in 2020.
From what I understand it is a new design and not the one that was put forward by Skypath.
| |
| | |
|
It's actually awesome. This is Volodymyr Zelensky is the new President of Ukraine.
He's not a politician, he is in fact a TV personality.
His campaign was basically won by utilising the spread of awareness on Social Media - which is great because that's a big part of my plan as well.
But the thing is, the really important point about his win, is that people around the world are breaking free and speaking loud and clear with their votes for people that are not long time politicians or bureaucrats.
| |
I'm Keeping Her Spirit Alive | |
I didn’t agree with a lot of her ideas, and I certainly didn’t agree with her refusal to pay rates - but there were some things she pushed for that I do back and would like to see come to fruition.
Penny Bright will live on and still have a voice as I will be doing a major part of what she was fighting for - opening the books, transparency, and removing the hidden payments of buddy-buddy deals. I want to stop side-hustles, the deals in the back rooms.
Standby for my plans on this.
It’s also kinda ironic that she was a welder - that was my first qualification when I was 16.
| |
 |
Let's start with some legal facts.
A state of emergency can be declared locally by a Mayor and nationally by a Minister.
These emergencies are set for 7 days, but can be extended as needed.
A “Climate Emergency” declaration is not a real thing. It is 100% symbolic, a gesture, and depending on an individual persons nature towards such things, the gesture can either be classed as solid or hollow.
If a Council votes to signal a “Climate Emergency” then they better have a damn good plan in place or they will expose themselves as the ultimate virtue signallers.
And, given that Councillor Penny Hulse has just announced that she will present a proposal to Committee in June for a vote to declare an emergency, and that she has said this on the same day that the students are protesting, tends to lend itself towards a signal of the highest order.
There's approximately 500 cities around the world that have done it. On our own islands, Nelson has done it, Environment Canterbury has done it, and a few in Marlborough have been vocal about doing it. Thankfully though, the Mayor for Malborough has said there is no need to do it as the work is already being done to combat any climate change issues. Phew. Some common sense finally.
Don't expect much from me when it comes to declaring an emergency. I will however work hard with all the right people to come up and instigate plans to reduce our carbon footprint - but I'm not a person that runs around beating a drum while yelling "the sky is falling..."
| |
Probably the second job actually. The first one will be finding my way around and working out all the different departments that need sorting.
So we'll call it the second job now. That will be a meeting. A meeting with the Council legal team to find out what can and can't be done about the CCO's.
Panuku, AT and the RFA are all disasters. But they are protected and I need to find the legal ramifications of making changes - and of course what changes I can actually make. The Council appoints 50% of the boards, but I need to know exactly how the rest of the boards are sorted and what can be done to change them.
I know a lot of people, real people from the real working world that would be the right people to be on the boards keeping an eye on, (and running) these entities. For all our benefits.
We need Successful people from specific trades and industries need to be brought in. No more clipboard holding, degree grabbers. Instead, people with genuine worldly experience. There's even a lot of retirees who I reckon I could convince to come out of the woodwork to help.
But first, sorry second, I need to talk to the legal team - you know - otherwise I'd just be another empty promise campaigner paying for billboards around town claiming that I'll fire the AT board...Oh hang on, someones been doing that recently...
| |
Alright, that's it for Newsletter #5.
Have a great week, I'll be in touch again soon.
Thanks for your interest.
| |
This Mayoral campaign is being fought on two fronts:
The newer world of social media,
and the old-school way with print and advertising.
Your help in this fight is genuinely appreciated.
If you have any friends or family, work colleagues, or community groups that would benefit in hearing more about our plans, please do inform them.
Forward them this email, let them know about the social media pages, and of course, tell them about the website where they can subscribe to this newsletter.
I sincerely thank you for your interest and support.
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