Cost cutting: But paying for dance lessons

Update: Phil Quin has also blogged on the story, and has had a response from Celia which he’s published.

It was nice of Mayor Wade-Brown to send a New Years email to her councillors and CEO setting the tone for the year.

By many accounts the major challenge that the council will face this year is the massive juggling act they in the form of increasing costs (particularly the leaky home and earthquake strengthening costs) and a demand to maintain services. In recent weeks we’ve heard about cuts to library hours, cuts to arts services and facilities such as Toi Poneke and today we heard that Celia was looking at moving motorcycle parking to the private sector to shift the cost onto bikers.

In this climate we might have expected Celia to talk about ways to balance competing demands for limited resources. Not so.

I’d like to discuss training, conferences and personal development when we’re back. I hope some courses on chairing, speed-reading, engagement and participatory democracy, new media or the RMA will appeal. We do need to reduce our expenditure but not to zero. Instead of waiting for conferences to be put up at SPC and then trying to decide who should go, what clashes etc, there are other ways – on-line webinars, local tertiary institutions e.g. Otago’s Sustainable Cities or Victoria’s Policy Institute – or LGNZ’s courses.

This is how she opens her email. To be fair, this is not a public communication, but it is rather disappointing that her first vision for the new year is so inward looking. Most people would probably agree with limited expenditure on personal development, especially in a planned and coordinated manner. But what she actually has in mind is probably not what you were expecting…

Or we can take new lessons in te reo, Mandarin or ballroom dancing – all exercise neural pathways and keep us mentally fit. (emphasis added)

Wait a second. We can’t afford to keep the libraries open or provide our artists with a space to work, but we can afford to send city councillors on ballroom dancing courses?!

I’m sure Celia’s natural reaction to this being leaked was that the entire email was some lighthearted fun. That simply doesn’t add up. She continues her email citing several articles she read over summer, talking about building a better brain and the link between mental and physical fitness.

Add to that the fact she is a very culturally sensitive person. She has a deep and genuine respect for Maori culture; I would hope that she wouldn’t lump something like learning Te Reo into a throw-away, lighthearted comment.

Seriously, what is going on there?