ClareBear 💚 
https://drbex.substack.com/p/local-government-elections?publication_id=863750&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=email-share&triggerShare=true&r=f8a6 Important info here #nzpol #lgnz
Overall, their responses can be summed up in three points:
Māori wards have been a positive addition to councils and their communities
Councils don't want to put the cost of a referendum on their ratepayers
The Government should stay out of local affairs.
Brownless raised concern at the cost of the four part-time commissioners, with Tolley paid $1800 per day and commissioners $1500.
Between July last year and February this year, the four commissioners claimed a total of just under $521,000 in salary and expenses. The costs were on par with the cost of a full council.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/514627/tauranga-council-commission-request-for-hybrid-model-turned-down-again
Strypey"Empowering local government to make decisions about their own communities is what this Government campaigned on and is not being delivered today.
...
Today’s announcement is a skewed version of democracy that isn’t used to determine any other wards or constituencies, just Māori ones. We say the Government needs to either apply them to all wards or none at all."
April, 2024
Dave Lane 
🇳🇿I'm starting to hatch a plan where a group of professional *#LibreSoftware* adherents stage an intervention at #LGNZ (the Local Gov't Agency) & require all council digital tech procurement staff to do a course on *how the digital world/business really works* (which we will develop) & then they have to reapply for their roles before they can waste another cent of taxpayer $. Because the current crop give absolutely no indication of being competent. We haven't got time for more of this shit.
Anneleise HallWho is the Gore Council CEO that managed to almost set up and oust young, new Gore Mayor Ben Bell?
Seems ratepayers generously put Steve Parry through Otago law school and a PGD. While employed as CEO, he spent two afternoons a week in Dunedin driving the council car there and back.
Seems like Steve Parry had a lot of reasons to get rid of Ben Bell - if you get my grift.
#gorecouncil# #lgnz
A lot of background in the hyperlinks, https://i.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/southland-top-stories/132075004/who-is-gores-steve-parry…
Seems ratepayers generously put Steve Parry through Otago law school and a PGD. While employed as CEO, he spent two afternoons a week in Dunedin driving the council car there and back.
Seems like Steve Parry had a lot of reasons to get rid of Ben Bell - if you get my grift.
#gorecouncil# #lgnz
A lot of background in the hyperlinks, https://i.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/southland-top-stories/132075004/who-is-gores-steve-parry…
"[The Local Goverment NZ] campaign encouraged people to go to meet the candidate-type events and go armed with questions such as 'What do you see as the biggest challenges facing your community?', 'Why are you running this election?' and 'What are your thoughts around the role of local and central government in Aotearoa?'"
@vik Have you asked #LGNZ what delivering voting papers costs their member councils every three years? You can't trust circular delivery companies, for the same reason you can't trust proprietary software vendors. They need to be delivered by posties, probably as registered mail. Have you seen what sending a letter costs these days, compared to 5 years ago? 10? Extrapolate that curve. Councils are saying this is why they're turning to digital voting. Why don't you believe them?
@lightweight
@lightweight
@lightweight obviously I share these concerns ;) So I would focus on educating folks at #LGNZ, #ElectoralCommission etc about the importance of independently auditable voting software *and* hardware. I suspect they see #NZOSS as partisan, since its members and their companies stand to gain financially from a free market in free code voting software. So I would work with #InternetNZ, or another organization not vulnerable to that perceived conflict of interest, to do that education work.