for the sake of your rates, we need to reset what council does and how it operates. More affordable rates and empowering voice, choice and control for communities must be the new way forward.
In just three years under the current Mayor, debt has near doubled (from $178.8 million to a projected $347 million) and run away rate rises tottaled over 19% for the general rate component and closer to 40% for those households with water and wastewater targeted rates.
A Council that states it has been focusing on affordability added more than 80 staff costing over 100K each. Specifically from when the current Mayor took office in October 2022 to June 2025, the number of staff costing more than 150K near doubled (21 to 39) including those on over 250K also doubling (two to four).
Is that the leadership we needed in complex times? I say no one voted for that and we can not afford to carry on with those sorts of costly decisions. It is not affordable and community voice has been lost.
There is a new CEO in place so time for a new Mayor. Time for real change and leadership, not photo-ops.
Vote Aksel Bech For Rates Sake.
empowering community voice, choice and control for more affordable rates
For the sake of rates, we can not near double council debt every term as the current Mayor's LTP projections state occurred in the three years since she took office. We can not keep adding senior staff and millions of dollars of staff costs to Council.
For the sake of rates we must return voice, choice and control from council to community to restore engagement and mandate—and achieve more affordable rates.
For the sake of rates we must urgently work with our neighbouring councils on shared services. It's been talked about for years, and has progressed with a CCO on Waters, but must be put in place for greater efficiencies across a whole range of services. We can not continue with multiple billing teams, multiple comms and marketing teams, multiple CEO's, different by-laws and regulations for doing the same thing be it everything from regulating Easter trading to enforcing building codes to licensing of food trucks. It's costly and parochialism is a luxury we can no longer afford. Government is now considering the elimination of Regional Councils, introducing rate caps and has given itself new powers under the RMA—this must be our way forward, making sure our local community voice is not lost in that process. Will that lead to amalgamation of councils? Maybe, but amalgamation of services is something we can get on with now.
It has been my privilege to serve as your Deputy Mayor in the prior term of Council—but being community based during this current term under a new Mayor and directly seeing the impact of runaway rates has seen me standing for Mayor to change the path we have been led down for the past three years. Time to stop rocketing rate rises. Time to reset and return to working collaboratively with our communities, for our communities.
For Rates Sake, Vote Aksel Bech for Mayor.
