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Murchison
Wednesday 30 November 2011
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MURCHISON
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Sights set on World Cup Page 20
Santa Claus comes to town
CHRISTMAS CHEER: Thousands of people gathered on Queen St for the Pak ‘n’ Save Richmond Santa Parade on Sunday. Check out our Facebook page for more photos. Photos: Phillip Rollo.
Kempthorne hits back over ‘cynical’ claim Andrew Board Relations between the region’s two mayors appears to be at an all-time low, both accusing the other of being “irresponsible”. Yesterday, Nelson City mayor Aldo Miccio said the decision by Tasman District to appoint a new chief executive a month before the Local Government Commission’s decision on whether or not the councils should amalgamate was “cynical” and could cost ratepayers more than $500,000 if the position was made redundant after an amalgamation.
But TDC mayor Richard Kempthorne hit straight back, saying recruiting a new CEO – after the resignation of current chief Paul Wylie – was the only responsible course of action and Aldo was out of order saying otherwise. “It is very disappointing that the mayor of Nelson has chosen to take a needlessly provocative, irresponsible and extremely uninformed view with regard to this recruitment process. It is equally disappointing to see him continuing to peddle the obvious fallacy of a redundancy payment in excess of $500,000. Apart from meddling
in an employment process of which he has no knowledge or responsibility, he is doing nothing less than scaremongering about the potential costs,” he says. Aldo had earlier said that he was concerned, as the appointed representative of Tasman and Nelson electors during the amalgamation process, that the decision to appoint a new head before the commission’s final decision on amalgamation was a “seemingly irresponsible, cynical, antiamalgamation decision.” He went on to say: “It is of concern because some people may say, for the sake of a one
month delay, TDC have instead decided to risk ratepayers funds in what may be a $500,000 redundancy payment to this new employee, within as soon as one month after his employment in January. The wise thing would be to hold the shortlist candidates and delay the decision to appoint from January to February after the Local Government Commission’s decision.” Richard says 48 people applied for this role in the full knowledge of the current amalgamation debate and have viewed the role
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