Editorial: Poor call on Montana vote

OPINION: One of the tricks to a politician achieving electoral longevity is the art of spotting proverbial potholes before they run into them.

Top politicians have an unerring knack of sensing trouble and avoiding it. Even if they are fouled, those with the greatest longevity, inevitably, can be neck deep but still emerge unscathed.

Former prime minister Helen Clark was a master at the art. Nearly every time there was a whiff of scandal, she was at arm's length. If things started to spiral out of control, a minister or an underling lost their job. Even on one of the rare times she was front and centre of a scandal herself – as a passenger in a car travelling well above the speed limit in an effort to get her to an airport on time for a flight to a rugby test – she wriggled off the hook by claiming to have been too busy to notice how fast the vehicle was going.

At the other end of the spectrum are those who hit potholes no matter how obvious they are. A recent case in point appears to be a Hamilton City Council committee, which elected to award a big-name city company a catering contract without putting it out to competitive tender.

The council's contracts committee voted on chairwoman Maria Westphal's casting vote to renew the contract Montana Catering had had. She and councillor John Gower voted to back a staff recommendation, while first-term councillors Angela O'Leary and television personality Kay Gregory asked for the contract to go to tender. Tied 2-2, Cr Westphal stuck with the status quo.

The problem?

One of the directors of Montana is intricately tied to senior council figures. Dallas Fisher is a long-time friend of council chief executive Michael Redman; they even had shares in the Breakers basketball franchise at one point. At the last local body election, Mr Fisher was an official backer of Mayor Bob Simcock, who was seekingre-election. Mr Fisher helped run his campaign.

Montana dominate the local catering scene, highlighted by long-term deals at the council-owned stadiums, and the council-backed V8s. There is a perception, based on very little evidence, that council has been looking after its own. That two experienced councillors could not see that is puzzling. Even Mr Redman was aware of it – he declared the conflict and took no part in discussion. Mr Simcock is not on the committee, thus didn't get a vote.

Remember, this is election year. Mr Simcock is presumably standing again, and it's a fair assumption to think Mr Fisher, too, is thinking whether to throw his lot behind Mr Simcock. Mr Fisher is also a principal in NDA Engineering and the advertising/marketing firm Brandish. Presumably he is a wealthy man, and the $100,000 theatres contract is probably small change to him.

But the only way to avoid perceptions of bias is transparency. Already some are dismayed by the decision. Crs Westphal and Gower have done their mayor no favours. To not give all local companies the chance to bid, particularly in election year, was silly. Silly, silly, silly.

- © Fairfax NZ News