The BFD | Manurewa Local Board: An Absolutely Biased Guide to Auckland Local Elections

Manurewa Local Board

RATINGS GUIDE:

$ to $$$$$ with $ being a leftist trougher and $$$$$ being small government dynamo

For some, however, a clown is more appropriate. More than one may be awarded.

There are 22 candidates standing for eight positions. You may cast up to eight votes in this FPP election. A race of this size is a mammoth task. Elections half this size can take several hours to rate properly. I hope I can do it justice.

Joseph Allan – Manurewa Action Team $$$$

Joseph leads the Manukau Youth Orchestra, so I estimate he was held back at school for three decades. He has been on the local board for one term, focusing on improving water quality at Weymouth Beach, tree planting and creating mountain bike tracks.

Weymouth beach had been unswimmable for 18 years, so changing that is quite an achievement. The board funded extra testing along the beach costing $10,000 and spent $1,000 on signs asking people not to feed the birds to minimise bird shit.

I’m not a big fan of saying “put up a sign” when people ask how to solve a problem. Anyway, I won’t detract further from this achievement.

Melissa Atama – Manurewa Action Team $$$$

Melissa has done a lot of voluntary stuff including being the Director of Clendon Pride, which isn’t an LGBT group but does have marches (not that there’s anything wrong with that). The focus is on addressing rubbish dumping, vandalism and anti-social activity. She delivers a free parenting course plus a Touch NZ sports project initiative.

Unsurprisingly she wants to keep sports fields ‘free’ which is hardly a controversial aspiration and champion street beautification projects. She was featured in a Spinoff piece last year about the poor state of Manurewa playgrounds, looking a lot smarter than the UNICEF NZ Child’s Rights Education Manager who compensates by having a very long job title.

Anne Candy – Manurewa Action Team $$

Candy has been a local figure for decades, including serving as Deputy Mayor of Manukau for 3 terms. During her time on Council, she helped fight for moral decency in Southmall and got a much bigger ovation than Len Brown when Manukau Council ceased to exist.

Since then she has had her name added to the Manurewa Local Board Honours Board for the amount of community work she does. To be fair, it is quite a list. I’ve double checked, and she wasn’t on the local board at the time.

I imagine Candy’s huge experience in local government will make her a valuable addition to the Local Board though they function differently to the community boards when Candy was Deputy Mayor.

Sarah Colcord – Independent $

There has been all sorts of gossip and intrigue this election about alleged bullying, dirty politics and shunting serving board members into the cold. These sorts of tiffs are nothing unusual nor are they exclusive to Manurewa Action this year.

Sarah says in her profile that she has “helped fund over a million dollars of projects.” That sounds a lot more impressive than it actually is. A more accurate claim would be that she was one of 8 votes around the table that decides where to put other people’s money.

Most of her focus is on youth engagement projects, founding the Auckland Youth Voice movement and supporting the development of Youth Councils. She received two New Zealander of the Year Local Hero Awards for her youth work and advocacy. I don’t think treating an age group as one homogenous opinion is anything to admire in the same sense as I don’t like gay people claiming there is a gay voice because it sounds nothing like mine.

Colcord is also passionate about nurturing creative arts.

I can kinda see why Manurewa Action have looked elsewhere for board candidates.

Angela Cunningham-Marino – Independent Action $$

An incumbent local board member with an Independent Action affiliation. Not hard to join the dots here. Angela has produced a picture sequence to show off the achievements she has helped with over the previous term.

There’s nothing particularly outstanding about her time on local board from what I can see. You’d think an incumbent would have a larger Google footprint.

Kim Dennis – Independent $$$

A current Wiri Licensing Trust Board Member, Kim has been working with youth, schools, school boards, community groups etc etc. Essentially she has long been a hard working community volunteer and now wants to try her hand at doing more from local board level.

She says she does not know everything but is willing to learn which makes her over-qualified for the role.

Sago Feagaiga – Labour Party $

Chair of the Waimahia Intermediate Board of Trustees, Sago says she understands many of the issues faced by Manurewa residents. I don’t doubt that.

Her priorities are “improving youth mental health, empowering families with easy to access resources and building greater respect for our elderly citizens.”

The first has nothing to do with local board. The second is oxymoronic and the third achieved with a clip around the ear (am I still allowed to say that?).

Tabetha Gorrie – Manurewa Action Team $$$

Gorrie is involved in youth church organisations, Girls Brigade and is on the board of Te Karaka Trust. She is also on the Manurewa electorate committee of National with her husband Carl.

Her focus is on keeping sports fields free for community sport. I don’t know how much work that takes. She also wants to preserve the weekly rubbish collection. Probably easier than changing it. She has mentioned a greater uptake of SuperGold card concessions. Don’t think you need to be on a local board to do that.

Finally, continued investment in parks and playgrounds. OK, this is getting somewhere. Gorrie also wants elected officials to be held accountable if they’re not attending meetings and thinks the voices of Business Associations are valuable in making the community as a whole thrive.

John Hall $$

Here’s another individual who has spent many years supporting his local community in a number of ways, through sports clubs and on the Board of Trustees of James Cook High School.

He’s stood in the by-election last year and in 2016, motivated by improving local sports facilities. In his view, there is widespread decline in the state of sports grounds, playgrounds and reserves which he thinks he can do something about.

Hall has also stood in general elections for New Zealand First in Manurewa for the last four elections, finishing a respectable third in the previous three.

Kim Isaac – Labour

Isaac has had a long career managing Maori Land Court processes and working on iwi developments. She has worked for Auckland Council for many years but doesn’t mention what she was doing.

Her priority if elected to the board is to consult broadly with the community and then use the feedback to measure the community’s key three priorities.

Meh.

Ilango Krishnamoorthy – Labour $

I rated Ilango on his candidacy for Manurewa-Papakura ward. It didn’t go very well.

Rangi McLean – Manurewa Action Team $$$

McLean is a familiar face in Manurewa, Chair of the Manurewa Marae as well as serving on the Wiri Licensing Trust and the local board since 2016. He has dedicated himself to helping those who are homeless and struggling.

When he says he wants to achieve social justice for all, you know he is referring to practical and charitable support for those in need. In light of the radical nonsense coming out of university humanities courses these days, one needs to be careful with the term.

Rangi has also previously been a candidate for the Maori party. I recall sharing a stage with him in the 2014 election debating housing at a Public Health Association forum. I found him to be good company, a situation which isn’t all that common in election debates.

Glenn Murphy – Manurewa Action Team $$

Glenn’s priorities if voted onto the local board are dealing with traffic congestion and improving community facilities, parks and sports grounds.

Murphy is a trustee of Manukau New Life Community Trust which holds the annual Manurewa Christmas in the Park event and provides food and clothing to families in need.

He also pays to go to Tonga during his personal work holidays to help orphanages and charities.

Ken Penney – Manurewa Action Team $$$$$

Ken has been a local barber for fifty years and I can remember getting my rats tail style done at his shop back when rats tails were actually cool (the early 90s which was never cool).

Penney has been a lifelong local of Manurewa and is on the Manurewa Business Association, sponsors the youth council and other charities. He has also served three terms on the Manurewa Local Board and has a long track record of being effective. Currently he is leading a board project upgrading the Weymouth boat ramp.

His role on the MBA and local board has seen them also reach out to Clendon businesses, which until recently had no established business association.

While traffic isn’t a function of the local board, Penney has been able to take actions to improve traffic in the area, asking AT to deal with issues created by some streets being used to sell cars, reducing parking available to residents. Penney has also taken the lead on working with AT and consulting with the community on safety improvements which the local board has seen fit to financially contribute to.

David Pizzini – Manurewa Action Team $$$

The by-election resulting from Simeon Brown being elected to Parliament saw Pizzini being elected to the local board. He was in the Police for 34 years retiring as a Detective Senior Sergeant. Once elected, Pizzini worked on upgrading Memorial Park. Manurewa Local Board took a strong stance against changing the Care and Protection facility in Weymouth to a youth prison which Pizzini also supports. The Environment Court judgement doesn’t mean the end of the issue but is good for the local residents.

David plans to continue improving sports facilities in the area and stop any user charging being implemented.

Mitlesh Prasad – Sustainable Future $

I had to take a second look to verify Prasad is a Trustee of Manurewa High School, not a student. Lucky bastard.

One of the things I enjoy about local body contests is the variety of groups and tickets that spring up and seeing how serious and organised they are. In a general election, you need 500 members to register as a political party. In a local election, you need a letter from someone other than you saying that their organisation supports you claiming their affiliation. A lot of these are obvious nonsense. Prasad’s looks like a one man band and generally I think you should have at least one other candidate if you’re going to run a ticket name. He’s obviously gone to a lot of effort, the website doesn’t look like shit, so he isn’t the worst candidate..

Mitlesh Prasad is a Chartered Accountant. He mentions this a lot. Apparently this is important because it gives him abilities nobody else running for local board has. Counting and being boring.

Sustainable Future doesn’t have policies, it has principles. These are (Chartered) Accountability, Maanakitanga, Kaitiakitanga, Whanaungatanga. Essentially it is brain dead collectivism with a kiwiana flavour. The website includes a copy of the handout going into Manurewa letterboxes. So far he has “lobbied the Human Rights Commissioner for more resource at Manurewa to address equity issues (sic.)” (an email nobody replied to?)

“Attended a discussion with Sue Tindal” (sat in the audience while she gave a speech?)

“Consulted with Manurewa High School around the local measles outbreak and steps required to protect our community” (ummm….a vaccination?)

Ezekiel Robson – Labour $$$

When I read Ezekiel was standing for Manurewa Local Board in response to 9 years of neglect in Manurewa, I rolled my eyes and moved on. Name dropping the local MP is desperate enough without stealing Labour’s worst taglines as well.

Then I remembered that I’m trying to rate each candidate as best I can and took a second look.

Ezekiel is vision impaired and works in the disability sector which is why he is also standing for Counties Manukau DHB. Labour isn’t completely bereft of commonsense; he spoke out in opposition to the DHBs stupid decision not to work with Ronald McDonald house to provide accommodation food and services to sick children and their families. He is absolutely right, why the hell would a DHB which is spending millions more than it receives (aren’t they all) not accept assistance from a private sponsor?

Generally, I don’t think much of an individual claiming they will represent everyone of a demographic they share one thing in common with. Usually, we call that identity politics. The disability sector is quite different though; they have difficulties that are unique to them and the Council does need specialty advice on providing services to those with a variety of disabilities.

Frances Smiler-Edwards – Labour Party $$

Frances is currently a Director on the Manukau Urban Maori Authority. She believes in improving financial literacy amongst families to empower them to make the best of limited incomes.

She wants the Council to limit alcohol outlets which will have huge support amongst existing liquor outlets for reducing their competition.

Elizabeth Tuia – Labour Party $$

Elizabeth has lived in Manurewa for 30 years and worked as a public servant for 17…or 18.

She wants to create more jobs for locals by encouraging big companies back to Southmall. I haven’t been to Southmall for a long time but when I last did, it certainly appeared to be on the decline. Normally Labour parties dislike big businesses for crowding out small businesses. In any case, I don’t know how she could achieve that as a local board member and it doesn’t look like she does either.

She wants to help find a community driven solution to homelessness and drugs. She also wants the local board to start offering scholarships to pupils that are determined to be successful.

Jagan Reddy Vodnala – Labour Party $$

Reddy has been a taxi driver for 17 years and is the Chairman of Directors of Taxis United. When asked about what he loves about Manurewa, he mentions how good the public transport access to the city is and also the rail network. Are Labour candidates meant to be doing that in a local board contest which has zero Labour incumbents?

Unlike many, Reddy has actually put a lot of specific ideas onto the Vote Auckland page:.

Lobbying council for better rubbish services, saying the existing sizes are too small for the large families living in the area. Considering the issues South Auckland has with illegal dumping, that makes sense but it isn’t a local board function.
Reducing the number of pokies and liquor outlets which can be seen near schools. How many places are there that aren’t near schools these days? The kids can’t go inside them anyway.
He will support local shops and businesses who employ local people. I don’t know how. Sounds a bit xenophobic.
He won’t allow people to sleep in places where they intimidate and scare shoppers
He opposes a fee for collecting inorganic household rubbish
He will vote to support local police and increase their numbers – definitely not a local board function.
He will ensure the public toilets are cleaned more often and build more public toilets around Manurewa. I guess working as a taxi driver makes you notice things like that. Probably some merit in it.
Also wants more recreational options and skill development seminars for youth. Sounds possible.

I think Reddy could prove a bit of a maverick.

Duncan White – Independent $$$

White is currently on the Wiri Licensing Trust and has a clear idea of what he wants to achieve from the local board. Better yet, it’s all stuff he actually can achieve on the local board. His biggest focus is on making sure the sports facilities provided by the Council are to a high standard so the sports clubs can focus on running their clubs rather than dealing with decaying buildings.

Grant Williams – Labour Party $

Grant has been a union rep for twenty years. He says this gives him an understanding of the needs of businesses and workers. If he understood the needs of businesses I doubt he would have continued as a union rep.

He believes Maori leadership will deliver better outcomes for everyone. Bit racist isn’t it?

MY RECOMMENDATIONS: You may cast up to 8 votes in this FPP contest.