Cr Ross Church says: “Recent events at Council have shown that some, within KCDC, are trying to break out of the Pike Syndrome.
The Pike syndrome is where the one bigger fish is at one end of a water tank, and the many smaller fish are at the other. Between them, is a glass petition. For a while, the pike bashes its head against the barrier, trying to reach the other side. Eventually it stops hitting its head against an unseen barrier. When the barrier is removed, the pike still doesn’t try to reach out, having been conditioned that the barrier is there”.
Cr Church says that he is one of the KCDC Councillors who have recognised that barriers of process need to be broken down. He says the Coastal Hazards debacle is a case in point. “KCDC needs to find better ways to reach the people and serve the people, not being hamstrung by old barriers and processes. If Government can change laws to recognise current social thinking, then KCDC needs to be equally responsive to the people”.
So, he says, he is standing for mayor, to find new ways of doing things. “Having spent 30 months learning how the bureaucracy works, I want to be part of a new approach, with new blood, so that we, KCDC, respond to the wishes of our community”.
When Cr Church stood in 2010, he said he would open up the Mayor’s office to make Council more accessible. “I stand on that again”, he says, “and I encourage those who are thinking of standing for Council to put their names forward”.
“Together”, says Cr Church, “we need to break down old processes, so that we respond better to all future challenges”.
