1. To build attractive community spaces – indoor as well as outdoor – in our suburbs.
2. To take care of our environment and make sure our buildings enhance, not detract, from Wellington’s beautiful natural setting, especially on our waterfront.
3. To keep effective council control over Wellington’s amenities and services, especially water management.
   
4. To support economic development within our city.
5. To explore and implement innovative ways to improve traffic flows for walkers, bikers, drivers and patrons of our buses.

1. Delivering vaue-for-money projects to ratepayers
2. Continue to market and develop Wellington as a world-class city
   
3. Growing business opportunties in Wellington
4. Ensuring fit-for-purpose community, sporting and cultural amenities for the city
5. Efficient transport solutions enabling greater movement and traffic flow through the city

1. I will be a worthy councillor with the X-factor. Worthy because I can bring to Council quality leadership through my substantial experience as a professional engineer and company managing director.
2. I stand for sincere family values, integrity, fair rates allocation spent each year in individual suburbs of our Onslow Western ward and local community group support from WCC.
3. I can contribute positive governance to ensure properly managed Council projects and well run sporting and arts events, and to minimise rates.
4. To encourage a thriving Wellington economy I will bolster the councillor team with my commercial skills to enhance private businesses and cherish our government sector employers.
5. My vision is a sophisticated and lively Wellington with joyful festival events, vibrant pedestrian malls, building and tower free views and waterfront, easygoing parking, traffic light free road between airport and motorway, and making the city safer at night to walk through. Also, I would like to see community viewpoints carrying greater emphasis in district plan change decisions, and proactive improvements to roads, trains, cycle lanes and buses in our Onslow Western ward.

1. 1 - Transport
   
   The car is a vital part of our transport system, but rising energy costs, climate change & limited road capacity mean we must improve public transport, walking, cycling & encourage a compact urban form. I've been working with Regional Council and the bus companies to improve your services. We are delivering on bus priority projects to improve reliability, the airport bus service has been significantly enhanced, real time information is about to be rolled out to 290 bus stops and railway stations. An exciting 'hub and spoke model' is being worked on, featuring more frequent feeder services from hill top areas into public transport hubs connecting with fast frequent services to the central city. It could revolutionise public transport in Wellington.
   
   I've got a 10 fold increase in money going into cycling and we have just announced a major cycle / walkway right through Tawa following the Porirua stream. Expect more significant developments in walking and cycling.
   
   We will need to work very closely with the New Zealand Transport Agency to ensure their (currently unknown) plans for State Highway One are well designed and work for the city.
   
   
2. 2 - Urban Development
   
   In 20 years time around 40,000 more people will call Wellington home. I’ve led our urban development strategy to accommodate growth as sustainably as possible while preserving the character we love. New rules require better protection for heritage areas, higher quality design, encourage residential development closer to services, shops, and public transport, and protect suburban centres as the hearts of each community. Well located, quality community facilities are vital to make those hearts strong and vibrant. This all builds on one of Wellington's greatest strengths - our compactness. It will help reduce transport pressures too.
   
   
   
   We’ve developed long term big picture community visions for Johnsonville, Adelaide Rd, Newlands, Kilbirnie. The Central City is the current focus with Miramar, Tawa & Karori to follow. We are now moving to deliver those visions - for example Johnsonville's upgraded pool and new library, and necessary roading infrastructure, Adelaide Road's boulevard (Drummond St beautification is under way now), Newlands new supermarket and shopping cetnre improvements, Kilbirnie's public space and pedestrian connections. Working closely with businesses and residents is critical, for example setting up business and residents groups to act as guardians of and advocates for the community's visions. Council housing is being upgraded in partnership with the Crown.
   
   
   
   I’d like to work with all communities to help develop their own vision and image and will drive their delivery. The children at Crofton Downs school have provided a wonderful example of developing a community image. Their art work has been made into welcome signs and banners for their community. Check them out when you are next passing !
   
   
3. 3 - Our Natural Environment
   
   Imagine our seaside city, surrounded by forested hills, teeming with bird life, enjoyed by walkers, runners, bikers. Streams & coastal fisheries have been progressively restored. Visitors from around the world enjoy the 5 day Coastal-Green Belt walk. We host a multitude of home grown recreational events. Zealandia - Karori Sanctuary’s global reputation blossoms with an ever growing tally of ecological & scientific firsts. The visitor centre opened in 2010 has helped it achieve financial self sustainability. It has a close partnership with attractions like Otari, Te Papa, the Zoo .
   
   
   
   I drove the doubling in size of our reserve network. Our Outer Green Belt is now unbroken from South Coast to Johnsonville. We’ve implemented comprehensive pest control programmes; there are 60 community environmental care groups, & an ever improving track network. We've made a huge amount of progress in the last 15 or so years in transforming our natural environment. I want to finish the job.
   
   I aim to complete our reserve network, link the Outer Green Belt to Colonial Knob, and protect Hutt Escarpment & Miramar Peninsula. A new pest control initiative I've been after for several years is to free the Makara Ohariu area from pests like goats and pigs. A funding package is currently being put together with landowner support.
   
4. 4 - Sports facilities
   
   I'm a keen sportsperson myself, playing football and running, cycling, tramping etc. Sport is important to healthy individuals and healthy communities.
   
   Last election I said I wanted 4 - 5 artificial pitches. I'm a football player and administrator. Artificial turf is great to play on and they are real cancellation beaters! Every season players will have 20-40, even 50% of their games cancelled and/or 'played' in impossibly muddy conditions. We’ve opened 2 artificials and budgeted 5 more, but councillors consistently blocked my & officers efforts to bring those 5 forward. However I now expect 5-7 more to be delivered in the next 3 years. Some people say they are expensive but the subsidy per player is expected to be under $2, compared with over $15 for every user of the indoor sports centre, and around $7-9 for pools, libraries and recreation centres.
   
   Council’s biggest 2010 budget debate was about pools. My priority is learn to swim programmes. I brought forward additional learn to swim space at Karori Pool (starts soon) and the Kilbirnie Aquatic Centre. After several rounds of debating I was delighted that we agreed a partnership programme with schools & learn to swim providers to upgrade school pools. Applications for that programme will start soon. Likely projects in Onslow Western include Khandallah & Cashmere schools. We also helped Makara school pool stay open by assisting with water testing costs.
   
5. 5 - Value for your money.
   
   Delivering value for your money has always been important to me. That doesn't mean doing nothing, but choosing the projects which deliver value. I've consistently argued to change the way we consult, so that instead of getting submissions which tend to focus on generally support for a single issue/project, to get submitters to focus on prioritising from among possible discretionary projects. The aim would be to get a feel from you, the public, which projects you most value across the range of possibilities.
   
   I would also like a taskforce including non Council people to assess Council's budget line by line looking for possible savings. Almost all your councillors are reluctant to do that level of assessment. We used to do it and I think we should, discipline ourselves to do it again. I'd see organisations like the Federation of Wellington Progressive Associations and Employers Chamber of Commerce participating, The Chamber has already offered.
   
   Our infrastructure is in good shape, and looking ahead Wellington is not going to face the major rises in expenditure that many Councils will to address infrastucture deficits.
   
   Finally I there is real potential for savings through joint services with other Councils. This is being explored now as part of our region's response to the 'Super City' concept in Auckland. We are already saving many hundreds of thousands of dollars through co-operation in water/wastewater/stormwater, and exploring joint development of IT systems (surely we don't all have to invent our own !), rates collection, building consents etc.
   

1. Vibrant, diverse, exciting city with growing job and business opportunities offering Wellingtonians a great quality of life
2. Great range of events and sporting contests. (eg. Festival of the Arts,
   WOW, Sevens, All Whites v Bahrain etc)
3. Sporting and recreation opportunities for all (quality playing fields, high quality community indoor stadium atificial turf rollout etc
4. Efficient and sensible transport solutions
5. Spending wisely, cutting costs and governing with care and integrity for both the individual and the community

No issues on file for Jack Ruben.

1. Sustainable Communities – Communities need a heart and for people to value them. Community based services and facilities are important to provide a place and focus for the people who live there. Services need to remain community-based and not be centralised in the name of ‘efficiency’ (which may or may not be realised). Services and amenities need to be fit for purpose and maintained. I think the council would be hard pushed to convince people that many sports fields around Wellington are fit for purpose.
2. Public Ownership of Assets – It’s a bit of a myth that private ownership/the free market produces efficiencies and hence lower prices - just look at the electricity sector for evidence that the reality can be different. What firms actually do is to maximise profits. It’s actually competition that produces efficiencies however for some services it’s just not feasible to introduce competition. In particular, for services related to transport like ports, airports, it makes no sense to try to run more than one operation in Wellington. We’re just not big enough. As transport is a crucial part of the economy, these assets need to be seen as strategic and important to the economic wellbeing of Wellington. I question whether placing them in private hands is a sensible strategy in the long term.
   
   With other services, it’s not desirable to privatise. For example clean drinking water, sewerage disposal are public health issues and should not be privatised. Ever. Modern business practices can ensure that services are run as efficiently as possible.
   
3. Sustainable Urban Design – the Romans built roads 2000 years ago in Britain, some of which are still being used today. Urban design can have a long term impact and therefore we need to think about what we are likely to need in the future. As an economist, I understand that developers want to make money. I don’t have a problem with that however the community is going to be left with the consequences of bad design for a very long time. Why do we have children’s play grounds with no footpath access, or streets with no footpaths, or too narrow to allow for public transport? The council needs to promote sustainable design within buildings. We flush drinking water down our toilets, when we could be using rainwater.
   
   Urban design also needs to be holistic and consider the impact of the accumulation of different activities. I’m not convinced that our council is seeing the bigger long-term picture. Are ‘green’ roofs really a good idea in a region prone to earthquakes? What will increasing the allowable coverage of buildings on land do to run-off and the demands on our storm water system? Can our water and sewerage system cope with more intensive land use? What is going to be the impact of multiple apartment blocks, not only on infrastructure but on the community? What sort of community will you get from apartment blocks if people only stay there for short-term (2-3 years) basis?
   
4. Sustainable Transport Systems – Transport is crucial to the efficient working of an economy. I believe one of our problems with the road network is a peak load issue. How do we manage the demand for transport at peak times? With reliable convenient public transport and other means - especially walking and cycling. Although we already have a significant proportion of the population using public transport or other methods, there is a limited amount of space on our roads. Cars are not an efficient use of the road space. I know they are more flexible and convenient (and I do own one!) but the same amount of space that can take 20 people in cars can take 200 in buses. Where can we build more roads in Wellington’s already built up areas without bulldozing through parks or homes? It does not make sense to sacrifice parks and homes for roads that only solve temporary congestion. I will also support further development of cycle-ways and the development of useable footpaths along our streets.
   
   Has anyone else noticed the number of slips and rock-falls that we’ve been having? Wellington had steep topography and weak rock. It needs to be a priority that hillsides above and below roads are retained, particularly for major routes. This is a greater priority than building new roads, or widening tunnels in my opinion. It’s a risk management issue. It’s not just about the inconvenience of a blocked road, (which has economic implications) it’s about people’s safety.
   
5. Sustainable Economic Development - as an economist, I don't buy the argument that being sustainable or environmentally responsible means we have to forego economic development. We need to be smarter how we use resources and technology can provide a better way of doing things that is less harmful to the environment. Development and use of digital technology will be one of the driving forces of economic growth. The other driver will be the development of 'green' technology. Developing countries like China realise this. If developed countries like New Zealand try to hold onto old inefficient technology, we will stagnate. I believe the Council has a role in facilitating broadband, and promoting the use of green technology where possible.