County head attacks ‘campaign’

Press, 6 September 1980, Page 1

County head attacks ‘campaign’

The Heathcote County chairman, Mr J. M. McKenzie, says that a “most vicious campaign” has been conducted against him in his last term in office.

Mr McKenzie will . not seek re-election to the council in next month’s elections, because of family commitments. He said last evening that he had an obligation • to; his'iybung family — Ke' has Two, children aged under five — which had suffered from the pressures: of his job as county chairman, and from the “unjustified attacks” from a minority of councillors and the community. Mr . McKenzie ■ accused some , councillors. of mounting a “most vicious campaign” against him, which, had left him “quite appalled.” He refused to name', the councillors, but. described them as “malcontents and discontents.”

!“It would be fair to say that I’ve had a very turbu-i lent three years,” he said.The campaign against him had included finding his name struck off the electoral/ . rolls and being linked with a political party. . - ' . ■

‘T have never been a member of any political party in my time on the council, he, said last evening. * . . ; ; - .':

'The .experience - would not' leave 'Mr' McKenzie embittered-byhis term on the. council. He had worked with a very good team, and he would make the same decisions if given the chance again. “I have had a very good crew in most of the council. I find it somewhat difficult to read newspapers which talk about a strifetom council —- it’s been more a matter of a couple of malcontents and discontents, ” he said. /Newspaper reports had made the Heathcote county council seem “peculiar,” Mr McKenzie said. /“It was , peculiar, but only in the sense that it has worked so efficiently.” In his.'last three years as chairman, Mr McKenzie said, the council , had improved its- financiall posi- .

'tion from a $17,000 deficit in 1977 to an account of $115,000 “in the blue” at the end of last March. “And this has been done on the three smallest rates increases in the metropolitan area, and / this year’s rates increase was the smallest in New Zealand,’' he s.id. ■■

Mr McKenzie.: said that he had decided to retire from the council four months ago, but his deci-sion-became apparent ’only yesterday when his name failed to appear on the list of nominations for the local-body elections on October 11. However, he is adamant that his retirement will be only temporary. . - , c

“I’m not at the end of the road; At .52, I still regard -myself as an angry young man in a hurry. My local-body days are far from over.”

: He has recently made a stand against rising electricity costs, and New Zealanders can expect to hear. more from him on the issue in his remaining six weeks as county chairman — and in the time beyond then. “I have only one regret, that the electricity problem has not fully resolved itself. But I have the utmost confidence in the

councillors, those who will stand for re-election, that they will continue the fight," he said. Mr McKenzie said that he hoped .to use his energies in “other quarters” outside the council after the elections, particularly on the electricity issue. He has already met a delegation from a power protest group from the West Coast, and he supports the stand taken by a Wellington-based group, “Campaign Power Poll”, to co-ordinate protests against rising electricity costs.

“Heathcote’s stand is the only way we will be able to make progress,” he said. A co-ordinated approach was necessary to achieve progress - on electricity pricing, and local-body candidates ' r should ■ be asked where, they stood on the issue, Mr McKenzie said. He accused the Government of a double standard by its refusal to negotiate ’.with the Heathcote council on the electricity , issue, while arguing with another power authority — “one of the biggest in the country” — which had not signed an agreement’ with the Government on pricing for two years. He declined to name the authority. Heathcote was in no way refusing to, pay its bills, but it did ..refuse to pay “under duress.”, The council was simply fighting for the right to negotiate, Mr McKenzie said. Local-body nominations, page 26. /