Takeover fears grow

JESSIE COLQUHOUN

A ROW is brewing in Otara over fears the community group that runs Te Puke o Tara Community Centre is about to be kicked out after 35 years.

Te Puke O Tara Incorporated Society has run the centre since 1975 after members raised more than $270,000 to help build it.

But chairman William Ropata says the society now believes the Otara Community Board is asking the Manukau City Council to call for expressions of interest from other groups to manage the centre.

But they can't be certain because at its meeting on Monday night the board went into a confidential session to discuss a council officer's report on management options for the centre.

Dozens of society supporters waiting to hear the report broke into angry shouts and tears as a security guard escorted them out of the meeting.

"We've always considered ourselves as transparent to the community," Mr Ropata says.

"We would've appreciated the same view from the community board."

Since the meeting locals have formed the Otara Action Group and are writing to the council to protest what they say is the board's lack of transparency.

But board chairman Ava Fa'amoe says confidential sessions are "normal practice" for such sensitive commercial discussions.

The report and the board's recommendations will go to next month's council policy and activities committee, he says.

And he's dismissed rumours, rife since Monday's meeting, that he's interested in running the centre himself.

"My only interest is the best way forward – with whoever that is," he says.

The society stopped filing annual financial returns in 2002 and was struck off the incorporated societies register three years later.

The council terminated its lease at the centre in August 2009 for the same reason, giving the group a deadline to bring its books up to scratch.

Mr Ropata says the council told the society to make changes and that's exactly what it's done.

It's been reinstated to the register and the centre's now economically viable with a business plan and a full programme for the community.

It's also working with other community organisations including Pasifika Physio, Otara Health and Manukau Institute of Technology.

"We recognised a community in need and put ourselves in a position to meet that need," Mr Ropata says. "We're really proud of that."

The council has acknowledged the positive changes made over the last few months, he says.

And a public meeting late last year saw the community overwhelmingly in favour of the current management staying on.

After all their hard work it's now "very frustrating" to hear the community board talking about management changes, he says.

Fellow committee member Poutoa Papali'i was one of the Hillary College students who helped raise the money to build the centre back in 1975.

He too is worried about rumours the council will seek expressions of interest outside the community.

Mr Ropata says the centre's management "must sit with the community".

Both men say an outside community group might not have Otara's best interests at heart.

At stake is more than $140,000 a year in annual income generated by the centre.

That includes substantial revenue from the weekly Otara markets, jointly run by the society and the Otara Labour Party which return a portion of that income to the community each year.

But Mr Papali'i says there is no way any new management group would have control over the markets.

He and Mr Ropata are hoping their improvements at the centre will keep the society in control.

"We've lost the first battle but we haven't lost the war yet."

- © Fairfax NZ News