Waimakariri Mayor Dan Gordon has firm words for online detractors: "Stop talking down our district."
The mayor was taking aim at social media commentary attacking the council’s debt of $210m and his mayoral opponent’s 0% rate rise promise.
Gordon and his council colleagues responded to the criticism during the final council meeting of the term on Tuesday, ahead of Saturday’s election.
"I wish people would stop talking down our district and start talking it up," Gordon said.
Councillors unanimously adopted the council’s 2024/25 annual report at the meeting, although mayoral challenger Paul Williams did question the lower than expected budget surplus.
The budget surplus was $4m compared with a budgeted surplus of $27m.
Revenue for the year was $172m, less than the budgeted $190m, while expenses were $170m – $8m above budget.
Council finance manager Paul Christensen said the low surplus was mainly due to contributions from developers being $13m less than budget and the reduced NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi subsidy, which led to a revised roading budget.
Williams questioned whether the reduced income from development contributions was "raising alarm bells".
"I’ve heard from developers that they are holding some big costs because of hold-ups in the council system."
Williams has campaigned on a 0% rate rise promise for 2027/28.
He has also taken aim at the council’s debt of $210m, which he said was "out of control".
"If you borrow to your limit, you will never get your credit rating back."
He also criticised the council for switching credit rating agencies from S&P Global to Fitch Ratings.
Williams did not name any developers, prompting councillor Tim Fulton to ask, "who are these developers?"
"I’ve said this before, but we are a community of people, we are not just developers," Fulton said.
"We are not a shop, we are not a business trying to run up a till."
Fulton challenged Williams to identify "which bits of the pie are you going to leave on the kitchen floor" to achieve a 0% rate rise.
Council chief executive Jeff Millward responded to the $13m difference in developer contributions.
"It is to do with the timing of when payments are due, we generally adjust this in the following year.
"To get a truer picture, you’ve got to look over 10 years to get an average."
Consents are strong and Waimakariri was not seeing the housing market downturn being experienced in other parts of the country, Millward said.
He said the council chose to switch to Fitch Ratings on the recommendation of its financial advisor Bancorp Treasury.
Gordon said if concerns were being raised by developers, he questioned why Williams had not referred them to the chief executive.
"Developers talk with us and they say they are doing well, some are even running out of sections.
"In our District Plan we have planning for 14,000 to 17,000 new sections over the next 30 years and we have a developer, Infinity, which sees its future here."
He noted Williams voted in favour of switching to Fitch Ratings, the same credit rating agency the New Zealand Government uses.
The council has since received a AA credit rating with a positive outlook.
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
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