Single Cell Denizens of the Council Chambers

No, it's not the latest HORROR MOVIE about to hit the screens - it's Tauranga Council's version of a "Mondo-SNUFF Movie, taking place in the local council chambers! - read on!

The Tauranga City council is about to hold a referendum concerning building a 21 million dollar museum in the city

Why is it that the council chambers appears to be the perfect habitat for single-cell organisms? Why is it that the otherwise seemingly intelligent beings that enter within are suddenly struck with the inability to rub 2 braincells together - the process required for the generation of a thought! (singular)!

It‘s not a question of "do we need a museum!" the answer to that is YES! The REAL question is "do we need a COUNCIL FUNDED MUSEUM! and the answer to that is NO!
Before they go spending $70,000 of the ratepayers money on a referendum (the result of which they will probably chose to ignore anyway - ie the previous referendum concerning water meters), perhaps they should make sure the QUESTION is appropriate! For example. If I asked Cr Dillon (a woman who would have no second thoughts spending her grandmothers last cent on something she wanted - for the public good of course!) if she would like a lollie, and when she accepted it, charged her an extra 13% on her rates every year to pay for it, she would be outraged.

That is because the question is misleading. I am not in the habit of just bagging peoples ideas for the sake of it though! - only BAD, poorly thought-out ideas! - they, I'm afraid are "fair game," and if you are prepared to say something bloody stupid, then I feel it is only right I point it out. Especially if you are getting paid by ME (the ratepayer) to do it! As an alternative SOLUTION, I suggest the council advertise for entrepreneurs or private investors to build a facility suitable to house a museum, promising to BEND OVER BACKWARDS, whilst doing backward summersaults to cut red tape, compliance costs etc, etc to make it as easy as possible for them to invest, and get the project underway. Then instead of PAYING thousands of dollars to house the citys artifacts in STORAGE, the council could "rent them out" to the privately run museum, and actually get a RETURN for them instead of them being a liability. (How about that then! a PROFIT instead of a LOSS) But here is the REALLY good thing! Should the museum not prove to be profitable, it would not cost the ratepayers ONE RED CENT! However a private facility would have a much better opportunity to be run at profitably than a council one, as it would be the investors money at stake, so he would have to do everything in his power to make it work financially. If it was run by the council, it would be just another white elephant, sitting there costing the ratepayers thousands every week to run at a loss - forgotten, and written off by the council just like K Road. Should a private investor NOT be found, it is quite obvious that a museum is NOT required, because an investor would do his sums, and work out how much it would physically cost to run such a museum, and do PROPER market research as to how much the public would patronise the project. If the sums did not add up, an investor would be FOOLISH to invest in such a project! SO THEREFORE, if the council go ahead and build one ANYWAY, what does that make THEM?