Christchurch Mayor Phil Mauger has defended the decision to give $82,000 of ratepayers’ money to the Christchurch Foundation, despite concerns about the organisation’s revolving fund and past funding.
Mauger said the request was brought to councillors this week, with a workshop scheduled in two weeks’ time to decide on any additional funding. “It was decided to give them the $82,000 straight away and then the rest will be out the back end of the workshop if it goes the way they want it,” he said.
Mauger said the Foundation had done an “excellent job” distributing money following the Christchurch earthquakes and mosque attacks but was now looking to reinvent itself.
“They want to turn it into an endowment fund and get people from around the place to put money in, and the interest gets distributed around Christchurch. There are a lot of other cities in the country that do that, and it works very well.”
The Mayor said he had confidence in the new board’s direction and passion.
Council staff accused of withholding information from elected members
Mauger was also questioned about Hallswell Councillor Andrei Moore being forced to file an Official Information Act request to obtain answers from council staff regarding the ongoing issues with Hallswell Junction Road.
Moore said it took three months to get basic information, but when the media picked up the story, answers arrived within a day.
Mauger said he didn’t believe staff deliberately withheld information. “It might be in the delivery of how they give it to them. Hallswell Junction Road is a unique thing. I understand the frustrations out there on what’s wrong with it.”
The Mayor said the road would finally be fixed, acknowledging it had taken strong advocacy from Moore.
He rejected suggestions that council staff had previously claimed the road was “as good as new” when it wasn’t.
“The problem is, if you paint a dented car with new paint, you’ve still got a dented car with new paint. And that’s what some of these roads are like.”
Mauger said some parts of the road were built on soft ground, requiring extensive repair. “The vast majority of Hallswell Junction Road is hard enough to put asphalt smoothing straight on, but there are other bits which will have to be excavated again.”
He confirmed the contractor would be picking up the tab for the necessary work.
Flawed crash data used to justify speed bumps
Mauger also responded to council staff using data to claim success with new raised platforms at the Bridge-Marshlands intersection.
Councillor Kelly Barber had questioned staff for comparing nine years of crash data prior to the installation of the platforms against just one year of data afterwards — despite a car crashing through a fence during that time.
Mauger agreed the comparison was misleading. “You’ve got to do apples for apples. It’s nine years versus one year — that’s not accurate. If you haven’t got nine on the other side of the coin, you shouldn’t compare it.”
Poor public engagement on key transport plan
The Mayor admitted there was poor public interest in the council’s 30-year transport strategic plan, with just 94 submissions despite $10,000 being spent on marketing.
He rejected claims staff were not interested in hearing from the public but acknowledged engagement levels depended on the issue.
“It’s what people are interested in, and I don’t think there’s that many people that it hasn’t got the pull — it’s not a biggie.”
When asked how the council could avoid low engagement being used to justify decisions like installing more speed humps, Mauger said he understood the concern. “All of a sudden it’ll be, ‘Oh, we’re putting all these speed humps in because that’s what people wanted.’”
Mauger also responded to a Chris Lynch Media poll suggesting 87% support for him as the next mayoral candidate, compared to little support for Councillor Sara Templeton, who has been campaigning heavily online.
“I don’t sit back and go, ‘Oh, look at this, this is easy.’ You’ve got to keep your foot on the pedal and keep going as hard as you can,” Mauger said.
When asked if it was a car pedal or a cycle pedal, Mauger laughed. “That’s a good question. I have got a cycle pedal, but I don’t put my foot on it very often.”
