Standing for the Queenstown Lakes mayoralty for the fifth time, Al Angus quips he’s a "repeat offender", but says "you’ve got to buy the ticket to have a chance, so there’s always a possibility".
This time the "late 60s" retiree’s ramped up his invective, calling on his billboards for the heads of council CEO Mike Theelen and three other senior managers.
"I see the mayor [Glyn Lewers], the CEO and the other three on the board as the biggest hindrance to curing these problems we’ve got in the district, there’s no [financial] oversight for a start.
Reminded Theelen’s resigning, effective February, Angus says "not quick enough".
He believes council’s been in a bad way for the last nine years.
"We’re $700million in the hole — I think the last nine years has accounted for about $500m of that, I could be wrong, and if [Lewers] gets back in, we’ll be a billion [in debt] by the end of the next three years."
Angus says his platform this time’s all about "ratepayer power", and putting the community at the head of the table.
"I’ve always been absolutely besotted with this district, and a lot of the people in it, so I stand for my community every time.
"It’s about giving them some voice at the table that’s listened to and acted on, because now it’s blatantly clear [with decisions] the process goes out for consultancy, comes back and it’s just, ‘oh thanks’.
"Can you name the last time submissions influenced the decision?"
Angus would be down with consultants — "the first three letters are there".
"The intelligence is in the community, because it wouldn’t matter who in the community stood up and came in to give advice, they would be better than what we’re getting."
He’s railing at council’s handling of the Lakeview development and Shotover sewage plant issues, in particular, which latter has resulted in treated sewage being discharged into the Shotover River.
At a mayoral candidates’ meeting last week he challenged the others to drink a bottle of water he’d filled from about 100 metres up from the Kawarau confluence, and there were no takers.
Talking of meetings, Angus explains why he boycotted last month’s mayoral candidates’ forum organised by the local Chamber of Commerce.
He says he walked out of the same meeting three years ago after the male co-host wouldn’t allow him to take a straw poll of the audience.
When reinvited this time, "I said, ‘I’ll come, but you need to apologise for your cheap ambush at the last thing’.
"That upset them somewhat."
As to why he never stands for a council seat, Angus has a simple answer: "I haven’t seen a mayor I would take orders from, I haven’t seen a single one that impressed me."
Coming from the head of the lake, he’s asked why so many councillors and council aspirants come from such a small area — he’s down the road from fellow mayoral candidate John Glover, and till recently outspoken councillor Niki Gladding lived in Glenorchy, as did the late Ian Kirkland.
"The people up there are free-thinking and practical, and they don’t take bullshit," he says.
Local credentials
Though Methven-born, Al Angus says his very early working days were on Joan and the late Jack Allan’s dairy farm in Queenstown’s Lower Shotover — "truly wonderful people".
Apart from farming he’s also been a mechanic in Christchurch and Twizel, and says he and his family — his wife’s from a Queenstown family — settled in Kingston in the early ’80s.
They subsequently moved to a block in Kinloch about 25 years ago.
Though retired, Angus says he remains busy enough, including working on his section and "trying to make it more flood-proof".
"I’m battling Ngai Tahu on every bloody turn for their vandalism of the Dart River."
Between times "I also torture a guitar now and again".
