Last week we had an interesting response to the team from ENGAGE with their proposal that maybe their method of approach, born out of their experiences of SKIRT could assist the way this City proceeds with the Red Zone.
I felt a bit guilty about how people at the meeting responded to the presentation. People immediately dived into individual projects, or issues. It wasn’t being proposed as that. It was about a systemic approach to handling how we proceed with the Red Zone. Currently the CCC is handling the Red Zone like a dog’s breakfast. No one unit is in charge. The leadership of the administration is all over the place, residing in three sections of CCC and nobody is in ultimate control.
I am convinced that the discipline of the ENGAGE method would make how we handle the next stage of the Red Zone a productive one.
If I could give an analogy for how I see ENGAGE operating. I was involved with a really good group of Trustees in establishing the Rod Donald Environmental Trust. We were not interested in duplicating what other environmental groups were doing. We wanted to work alongside them and to reinforce their excellent activities. The Trust has promoted environmental excellence because it promoted joined up thinking.
New parts of Banks Peninsula are now publicly owned and walkways are everywhere. The first tramping hut on Banks Peninsula has been opened since Harry Ell’s efforts 100 years before has been opened. The Trust worked alongside the existing groups. It nurtured them to greater things. That’s why we need a structure driven by ENGAGE framework to lead this City to manage the Red Zone so that we leave a legacy for those who follow us that we can all be proud of.
I don’t see ENGAGE as a bunch of consultants looking to fatten their pockets with fees and charges. Like the commercial proposals which were in front of the CCC this week.
ENGAGE is a process which grew out of the experience of specialists who worked together in SCIRT as they repaired our infrastructure. They experimented with ideas and came up with a framework which is profoundly simple.
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