Palmerston North mayor delivers state of the city address

A renewed vision for the City Council and a new system of stewardship are being promised by Mayor, Jono Naylor, in his State of the City address this evening.

Jono Naylor, in speaking to members of the Palmerston North community at the City Council Chambers tonight, announced that the Council will introduce zero based budgeting from the 2008/2009 financial year which means “we will start from the beginning and decide just what it is the city really does need.”

He predicted the zero based system will enable the Council to more closely manage the city’s financial resources and align them with its vision for the future.

Jono Naylor acknowledged that although the Council has been working hard and has managed to trim $3.5 million from the Draft Annual Plan, it is proposing a 12 percent rate increase for 2008/2009.

Interest rates “considerably higher than predicted”, rising oil prices, for example a 30 percent increase in the cost of bitumen, and the flow on effect of some major capital projects have significantly contributed to burgeoning costs he says.

“We are pursuing better ways of doing things but these will take time to implement,” Jono Naylor says.

The present reality is that the Council faces increasing pressures to keep rates at a manageable level and yet there is an ever increasing expectation that the level of service provided will improve he warned.

The Draft Annual Plan will be released to the public next week for their submissions and Jono Naylor welcomes their feedback and opinions.

This year’s Draft Annual Plan (DAP) is the third since the LTCCP or 10 Year Plan was introduced and, at the end of the third year, the Council can review its 10 Year Plan.

“This will mean outlining a renewed vision from the Council for the city as well as finding better ways to do things,” Jono Naylor says.

As part of his own vision he emphasises making the city better for “our children to raise our grandchildren” and the three words - affordability, sustainability and opportunity.

In his wide-ranging address Jono Naylor pointed to the city facing another major challenge on top of the significant internal challenges – pride in the city – and he referred to a culture in the past where some people have perceived “it’s not ok to talk positively about our city.”

“While we can’t just tell people to have pride, it’s our job as city leaders to instill belief,” he says.

“We don’t need to change much about our city, we just need to change spectacles and look at it differently. Then we can start working on how others see us. We’ll have people queueing up to come here.”

In his favourable evaluation of the city, Jono Naylor referred to its extremely low unemployment, some of the best educational institutions in New Zealand here, a fast growing distribution industry, the impact of a caring community and, on the sporting front, sportspeople like Jacob Oram, Tim Wilkinson and Kris Gemmell who have established international careers from Palmerston North.

“We are the only city in New Zealand under 120,000 to have a university and boast an international airport,” he reminded his audience.

“We have it all here folks, this is a great city but it can be greater still if we believe in ourselves, back ourselves and capitalise on what we have already.”