For those that do not know of her Sandra Hazelhurst has been Hastings District Council Mayor for two and a half, or thereabouts, terms. She was elected Mayor in a by election if my memory is correct.
Hastings DC puts out a monthly trash sheet called `My Hastings’ – it includes the usual `mumbo jumbo’, details of progress on projects and a Message From The Mayor which is what this post is focused on because the issue that appeared in our letter box late last week included this statement by Mayor Hazelhurst – and I quote:
`In my time as Mayor I have discovered the role entails obligations to three groups – the councillors, council staff and the community. It requires balancing the priorities of everyone within the operational and financial constraints of council to meet the needs of the community as widely as possible.’
No, no, no Mayor Hazelhurst your obligations as Mayor are:
- To ratepayers. To ratepayers. To ratepayers.
- To keep infrastructure, water services and basic Council Services up to scratch within budgetary constraints.
- To Council Staff.
- To Councillors
Your tenure as Mayor even allowing for the difficulties of Cyclone Gabrielle have seen far too many vanity projects, such as paying and giving voting rights to Volunteer Student Councillors and including some other projects which showed an even greater disregard to costs to taxpayers. Council buying a building in Central Hastings p$1.1million dollars approx and a couple of years later selling it for $150,000 incurring a loss to ratepayers of about $1million. This shows gross disrespect to ratepayers.
As does rate rises of 19% last year and forecast 15% this coming year.
I say thank goodness you are standing down as Mayor and hopefully from Council Sandra Hazelhurst – you have milked us dry and you show a complete lack of appreciation of your responsibilities and priorities as Mayor.
No Minister 
The likelihood is signalled in the launch of the Hastings District Council’s Heretaunga Ararau Te Reo Māori Action Plan, which mayor Sandra Hazlehurst says “will help us to celebrate te reo Māori, along with the wider community”.
“This plan has an ambitious goal for Hastings to be a te reo Māori city by 2040 and its implementation will be guided by a Memorandum of Understanding with Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated,” she said in a prepared statement. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/naming-plan-hastings-to-be-a-te-reo-maori-city-by-2040 Almost simultaneously the Māori Party released a general election policy statement proposing “Pākehā place names” be replaced with their original “ingoa Māori” by 2026.
You sure do your research pk.
I don’t recall seeing that – mind you I don’t usually bother reading the HBToday.
BTW your link doesn’t work – do you have the edition date?
Thanks pdm. I am a big fan of your articles and most of the others on No Minister.
I will be sending your article to my mailing group tomorrow and will be “editorialising” with –
Mayor Sandra Hazelhurst set a goal of making Hasting the first NZ city with total bi-lingual street signage!
The likelihood is signalled in the launch of the Hastings District Council’s Heretaunga Ararau Te Reo Māori Action Plan, which mayor Sandra Hazlehurst says “will help us to celebrate te reo Māori, along with the wider community”.
“This plan has an ambitious goal for Hastings to be a te reo Māori city by 2040 and its implementation will be guided by a Memorandum of Understanding with Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated,” she said in a prepared statement.
“The goal is to incorporate te reo Māori in more documents and forms, as well as the design and build of council projects, including planning for growth and the District Plan,” she said.
Almost simultaneously the Māori Party released a general election policy statement proposing “Pākehā place names” be replaced with their original “ingoa Māori” by 2026.
Try this link – https://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/hastings-council-introduces-bilingual-signs-on-road-to-becoming-te-reo-maori-city-by-2040/BY7DGEUNVFFERNMPEQVEAYQHVQ/
Hastings Leader
21 May, 2023
Would you like us to run what you send out to your mailing group as a Guest Post?
If you do email it to me at cruliviig@gmail.com and I will run it unedited as soon as I see it.
Thanks PDM. I will include you the mailing group
Here in the Far North our woke, part-Maori, Te Reo obsessed mayor wants to make Kerikeri a bilingual town. He plans to waste money on bilingual sings etc that no one asked for.
This is a consequence of making Te Reo an official language to appease a noisy minority of part-Maori grifters. But take no notice of me, I am just an old white racist.