Born in Warkworth, I grew up on local dairy farm, attending Matakana School. Enlisted in RNZAF, I trained in Electrical/Electronics. After completing service, I worked in the construction of Dairy and Manufacturing plants. This generated specialist knowledge and experience in large energy, waste water, water treatment, and infrastructure projects.

I developed a strong plain speaking management style and strategic analysis capability from senior executive positions and entrepreneurship. I am known for delivering on-time and on-budget.

Auckland Council is an opportunity to reform Local Government.
• Rates are set on services, not land wealth
• Bureaucracy is held to account and to a minimum
• Customer service focus instead of self-serving
• Streamlining processes to enable progress
• People-led mandate for large civil projects
• Local contractors for local council contracts

By ticking Tom Ashton on your voting form you are ensuring:

Accountability
Simplicity
Honesty
Transparency
Objectivity and
No nonsense

Your rate dollar is essential to the well being of your community! It is vital that it is spent wisely and with the maximum effect.

Vote TOM ASHTON

021999118

Top 5 Issues

1. Rates are set on services, not land wealth
2. Bureaucracy is held to account and to a minimum
   
3. Streamlining processes to enable progress
   
4. People-led mandate for large civil projects
5. Local contractors for local council contracts

Personal Profile

I was born in the Warkworth Cottage Hospital and spent my younger years on local dairy farm, attending Matakana Primary school. After school I enlisted in the RNZAF and trained in Electrical and Electronics. After completing service, I became involved in the automation of critical infrastructure and nation-wide wealth creating Industries (Dairy and Manufacturing), first an Industrial Electrician, then a Project Engineer, and later as an Entrepreneur. This work has generated a specialist knowledge and vast experience of energy, waste water, water treatment, and other projects. It also engendered a strong plain speaking management style along with strategic analysis and capability. My wife Bron and I moved back to Rodney 15 years ago and now live on the Mahurangi Harbour.

I see the Auckland Council as a needed opportunity to reform Local Government. Going from seven, mostly dysfunctional, councils to one operation can create huge efficiencies, if managed correctly! It also means a dictate, where people can hold the bureaucracy to account. There has been an increasing rumble of discontent surrounding council governance! Now is the time to address it. The system currently used to fund Local Government (Rates) must be reformed:

Why should a widow living in the family home of 50 years , on a fixed income, pay higher rates than a family with two incomes living two streets away, given they are receiving similar services from Council.

Why should a farmer with several hundred acres, down an unsealed road with no piped water, no sewage, no footpaths nor street lights pay many thousands more in rates than someone living in Town who has these services.

The answer to both these questions is they should not! They must not. It is not okay to build a bureaucracy and then levy the people to pay for it. Instead, let’s set the rates and then build a system that can effectively perform within those parameters.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. We have a chance to do something different; let’s work for a different and positive result.

Under the new Auckland Council before another cent is spent on office buildings and bureaucrats we must have a program to:

• ‎1. Seal all rural roads
  2. Ensure that no treated or partially treated effluent is being discharged into Public water ways
  3. Resolve the Auckland wide transport issue, and ensure that the funds for the Puhoi to Wellsford motor way are not diverted to other projects.
• 4. Ensure that all the people of the Auckland are consulted before any large scale civic projects are under taken. (Referendum)
• 5. Have all senior staff employed on a 3 year term to coincide with the election cycle, and then an incoming Council could determine the staff they want
• 6. Adopt a policy were if the RMA or other legislation requires interpretation then the interpretation is given in favor of the rate payer/resident. The Council staffs are not the guardians of the RMA the Central Government is. If they don’t like it then they like everyone else have to get central to change it . For example, Council officer stating that a building permit could not be processed until resource consent was obtained, then refusing to apologize when proved wrong. Could have resulted in many thousands of dollars additional expense.
• 7. Create a system where no Council staff can issue either a abatement notice or an infringement notice unless it has been signed off buy an elected official i.e. councilor. ( Police have to get a search warrant signed off by a Judge or J. P.) Provision could be made to deal with extreme cases.

Please phone Tom on 021 999 118 for further information.