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Speaker 1: Ever, now the government has appointed a chap called Lindsay

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Speaker 1: McKenzie to be the Crown Observer to Wellington City Council. Now,

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Speaker 1: Lindsay McKenzie comes with experience. He was the CEO of

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Speaker 1: Tasman and Gisban District Councils. He also helped out in

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Speaker 1: Vicargo City Council with government's issues, so he knows what

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Speaker 1: he's doing. Local Government Minister Simeon Brown is with us

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Speaker 1: a Simon Good evening, so he's starting on Wednesday, which

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Speaker 1: is pretty quick. Why are you getting him in there

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Speaker 1: so quickly, Well, there's.

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Speaker 2: A number of reasons. Firstly, the issue around the long

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Speaker 2: term Plan is under council. Of course, one of the

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Speaker 2: reasons why we've decided to point an observer one because

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Speaker 2: there's been a number of relationship issues at the council

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Speaker 2: to the long term plans being fully relitigated and so

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Speaker 2: the council's going through that process. They asked me to

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Speaker 2: get someone in there as quickly as they can to

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Speaker 2: assist with that process. So we've identified Lindsay. He's got

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Speaker 2: local government experience and background. He'll be able to provide

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Speaker 2: another set of eyes and ears into that council. Reporting

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Speaker 2: to me, but also his experience having dealt with issues

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Speaker 2: in Thecargill District Council will mean that he's able to

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Speaker 2: assist Wellington with the challenges they're facing.

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Speaker 1: I see you've got an end date on his contract,

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Speaker 1: so thirty first of July next year he's finished. But

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Speaker 1: what if it's still a mess.

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Speaker 2: Well the issue here is the key issue is that

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Speaker 2: they decided to relitigate their long term plans, so they

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Speaker 2: need to have that fixed by the middle of next year.

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Speaker 2: And so my intention is for that observer to be

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Speaker 2: there during the process of the council going through its

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Speaker 2: long term plan, reconsulting on it and then finalizing it.

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Speaker 2: But after that we'll be shortly going into the local

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Speaker 2: government elections and the people of Wellington will presenting them.

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Speaker 2: I don't intend for the observer to stay during that period.

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Speaker 1: Okay, you mentioned relationship issues. Is he going to deal

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Speaker 1: with things like the thing that's in the paper today

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Speaker 1: where Liz the counselor shouted at Diane the councilor, which

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Speaker 1: made Tony and Nickel of the councilor's right to the

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Speaker 1: mayor to try to sort it out. Is that the

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Speaker 1: kind of thing he's going to deal with.

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Speaker 2: Well an yeah, as I said, there's a number of

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Speaker 2: issues that need to be sort of that. One is

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Speaker 2: the relationship issues, which is the personalities.

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Speaker 1: And how does he deal with this? What's he going

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Speaker 1: to do is sit there and go Okay, there's sit down,

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Speaker 1: shut up, observe.

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Speaker 2: The observer has the ability to assist the council. He's

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Speaker 2: not making decisions on behalf of the council, but he's

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Speaker 2: able to assist the council lose the mayor and provide

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Speaker 2: another set of eyes and ears and another set of advice.

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Speaker 2: That's one of the roles of a council observer. And

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Speaker 2: we put what that, what is being seen or what's happening?

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Speaker 2: The third is around this. This is you know, he

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Speaker 2: comes with a lot of experience in local government. He

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Speaker 2: currently sits on the Nelson City Council Audit and Risk Committee,

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Speaker 2: is a deependent member. He's got good financial experience and literacy.

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Speaker 2: He's going to be able to system as they go

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Speaker 2: through that process and give them another set of another

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Speaker 2: another some external advice. Effectively, if they on the council

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Speaker 2: and looking and it's up to them, but another set

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Speaker 2: of advice. So that they can actually look at the

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Speaker 2: issues that they've been granted with and be given some further.

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Speaker 1: This is to me and let me just get this right.

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Speaker 1: This is for the councilors who are just ordinary lay

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Speaker 1: people elected to this position. He sits there and they go, Lindsey,

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Speaker 1: can you explain to us the most important things in

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Speaker 1: this financial document? And he'll be able to do that.

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Speaker 2: That's correct and ultimately at the moment they have the

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Speaker 2: Chief Executive of Wellington City Council does that having an

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Speaker 2: observer in there as an ability to the council with

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Speaker 2: another effective but also provide aster as well.

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Speaker 1: Okay, and what if is one of the problems with

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Speaker 1: Wellington City Council is that there's been a relationship breakdown

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Speaker 1: between the unelected officials like the Chief Executive and the

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Speaker 1: elected people. Right, so is he going to be able

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Speaker 1: to sit there and go, hey, Barbara, the Chief Executive,

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Speaker 1: I know you need to give them more information handed over?

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Speaker 1: Can he take his own initiative there?

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Speaker 2: He is able to assist the council on those issues

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Speaker 2: in terms of the terms of references around the long

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Speaker 2: term plan. So he's able to provide another another set

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Speaker 2: of advice to the councilors and to the mayor the

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Speaker 2: issues that they are facing as they go through their

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Speaker 2: long term plan process.

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Speaker 1: Good stuff, Hey Simon, thanks very much, really appreciate it.

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Speaker 1: To me and Brown, the local government minister. For more

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Speaker 1: from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive. Listen live to news Talks

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