On election day Otaki was 1 member short for its community board, and is now two members short. This is unfortunate. I suspect that residents in Otaki who may have thought about standing did not do so because the existing members had all been excellent. They were a united hard working board so why change?

The unprecedented resignation of Andre Baker, twice chair of the community board but twice unelected as Otaki's ward councillor now means we will have 2 places to fill. His reasons for resigning even before he was sworn in are petulant and do not bear scrutiny and it is a great disappointment to many in the community. There was always a 50% chance that Andre would not be elected and if he had no intention of lasting the distance, he should not have stood for the board. We have not been well served here.

We were therefore always going to have a by-election and the cost of one. Not a good look in terms of arguments for prudent financial use of ratepayer money or for that matter an argument for retaining community boards. Where were all these good people last October who are now expressing an interest?

Complacency is the enemy of democracy and this should not have happened.