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All too often they appear to be the home of a certain ilk of people who thrive on bureaucracy, rules and power-trips -- as many who have had to deal with council officials can testify.

Of course there are exceptions and one of the things that drew me to Tokoroa was the presence of at least one "switched on" council official who not only knew his job but was incredibly pro-active at fostering enterprise in the area.

During his tenure, he was active in the creation of a wireless network that gave this area a real choice of broadband options -- and that's good.

It wasn't 100% reliable, nor was it particularly well designed - but mostly it worked and this meant that regular folks weren't tied to Telecom's apron-strings if they wanted fast Net access.

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Unfortunately such a system found it rather hard to compete with the marketing muscle of Telecom and its DSL offerings and the council decided to sell it off rather than continue to be partnered in a loss-making enterprise.

After a couple of changes of identity and operators, the wireless network was revamped earlier this year by Borg, who poured a fist-full of money and new hardware into the area - with the aim of increasing the coverage area and performance.

As part of the deal, Borg was given rack-space in the council buildings, a factor critical to the cost-effectiveness of the operation.

Although the customer-base for this service was small, there was good potential for growth and Borg picked up local businesses, private users and even a school as customers. There was a good chance that they'd recover the nearly $100K invested in this venture, eventually.

But then something strange happened...

The council reneged on their earlier agreement to provide a home for Borg's gear and ordered them to remove their equipment with little notice.

Much rumour and speculation surrounds the exact motives behind the council decision so I rang the council CEO, Ms Jeanette Black, to get their side of the story.

Well I had hoped to get their side of the story -- but my calls were not returned.

A last-ditch attempt was made by Borg to renegotiate the situation but the council seemed hell-bent on scuttling the very network that they had been instrumental in creating.

The other day, the wireless network stopped working and will probably never work again.

It's always a sad day when an area's broadband choices are reduced, especially in light of the fact that just last month, central government announced the availability of $45 million in funding to support such ventures by city and district councils.

Could it be that the bureaucrats in this council spied the chance to get their hands on some of that cash -- but knew they couldn't do so while there was already a wireless network operating here?

Could scuttling the Borg network in Tokoroa by kicking them out of the council offices be an easy way to achieve this end?

No, of course not. That's not the way that petty local bureaucrats work -- is it?

Fortunately, there are still a few hard-working people at the coal-face of council operations but it also appears that there are some whose decisions really ought to be scrutinised more closely.

And I wonder if Ms Black will ever return my phone call... but then again, it's only been two weeks and we all know how slow *some* bureaucrats work eh?

My plans to set up a rather significant hi-tech manufacturing operation here in Tokoroa sometime next year (training and employing local people) must now be carefully reviewed. I want to invest in an area where you can rely on a council to stick to its word and where they are your ally in business, not your competitor. And besides, I was relying on that wireless connectivity as a part of the value offered by the area.

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