The elected members of Palmerston North City Council have only one employee - the Chief Executive Officer. In the latter stages of Jill White’s term as Mayor, Mr Paul Wylie was appointed to this position. As CEO, he is responsible for employing staff, so while the elected council has one employee, the CEO has hundreds. It is a testament to Paul Wylie that he has taken the organisation through a period of great change while ensuring that PNCC has extremely capable staff and a management team that is arguably the best in the country. Most of this team have been with the council for many years. They do an excellent job for the city and it is largely due to their expert advice to council that we have a city that is prospering and growing.

Summer Concerts in the Park
This Sunday, Feb 18th
4-7pm at the Fitzherbert Park

PNCC proudly presents Six Chairs Missing, Hendrix Warren, and The Feelers this Sunday in Fitzherbert park. Itâ??s a free event for all ages, and sure to be a hit! Gates will open to the public at 2pm with parking in Manawora Park, and disabled parking in the Hockey parking area. There will be food and cold drinks and coffee for to purchase, and picnics are also encouraged.

Usually we hold these concerts at the Esplanade, but because of anticipated crowd sizes, we have needed to move it to Fitzherbert. Be sure to get there early to get a good spot!

Esplanade Day
Sunday, 25 February 2007
10.00am - 5.00pm

Get the family together to enjoy the magnificent Esplanade Park on Sunday, 25 February. This is a day for the whole family that showcases the best of Palmerston North. Activities and entertainment for all ages including musical performances, children’s rides, McDonalds Fun n’ Magic Show, and celebrity guest April Ieremia to name a few! Bring an empty stomach because there will also be a variety of food stalls. Grab the picnic basket, and meet us at Esplanade Park for a day of free summer entertainment.

On 8th February, the top of the clock tower that was sliced off a few months ago (to enable other refurbishment work to proceed) was restored to its original position. A photograph of the top piece back in position is below.

All structural strengthening of the foundations, base, columns and beams have now been completed. Over the next two weeks the top section (which has been lifted back into position) will be strengthened and structurally tied in with the rest of the tower structure.

“Local Government New Zealand is showing real leadership on the leaky homes issue,” says its President, Basil Morrison. “We have been closely engaged in the issue and the implications for councils and homeowners since 2003.”

The organisation has been trying to engage Government in discussions on possible risk-sharing mechanisms to manage the ‘leaky homes’ issue. The latest example of this was through Local Government New Zealand’s submission to the Select Committee considering the Weathertight Homes Bill in October 2006, the organisation was not successful in achieving change to the current legal situation on liability.

Councillors and staff had a full day workshop on 8th February, to discuss the Draft Annual Plan. This Annual Plan is Year 2 of the LTCCP (Long Term Council Community Plan). At the beginning of the workshop, the councillors and Mayor were faced with an unpalatable truth - the decisions made throughout the first nine months of the ten year plan, many of which incurred expenditure that was not budgeted for, had resulted in a likely rates increase of 17.8%.

Elected members were warned that while we insist that management and staff stick to budgets, working within tight budgets means that the Mayor and councillors also have to be disciplined with their spending.

This last month has seen me shaking my head in disbelief as I read the local newspapers. There has been so much misinformation that I really doubt the wisdom of any of us thinking we are getting “news” or factual information when we read the paper these days. A pattern seems to be emerging whereby one local newspaper makes front page “news” with sensationalised stories that have little bearing on fact, then a few days later “corrects” the story with a small update. This appears to be making some councillors and councillor wannabes very excited and its clear that the election campaign, for many, is already well under way. I’m already getting sick of the electioneering - and we have the best part of nine months to go!

I returned to work yesterday after some of the most miserable weeks I have experienced. Chicken pox is no fun and given how long I was ill, I am inclined to revise my earlier opinion that it is not worse for an adult. I still have no energy and a few healing spots, but I was very anxious to get back to work.

Last week, our Council meeting went on until past 1am. At each of the votes to extend the meeting, once we got past 10.30pm, I voted against. Due to work commitments and a Hearings Committee meeting that was held before the council meeting, I had not had any dinner and I put my tiredness (and admitted bad-temper by midnight) down to hunger. I don’t have a high waffle-threshold at any time and was not impressed with having to sit through all kinds of extraneous chatter about things that had no relevance to the order paper, but I should have realised that being so tired was the harbinger of becoming ill. I was genuinely concerned about staff who had been at work since 8am, still being at work at 1am, and having to return again only a matter of hours later. But, I have never before been so cranky about sitting at a council meeting for close enough to six hours.

On 18th October, at an Extraordinary Meeting of the Infrastructural Well-Being Committee, Palmerston North City Council voted to proceed with the change of purpose of the Turitea Reserve to add an additional local purpose - renewable energy generation.