As part of the Morning Show's coverage of the 2022 Local Elections, Aaron will be interviewing candidates standing for positions on the Raglan Community Board as well as the Waikato District and Regional Councils. Below is a transcript of Aaron's interview with Satnam Bains.
"We've got to report every single small crime. I've always advocated that, even if it's a small crime or something’s happened, just get on the phone and report it. Because when they review the numbers of the police officers in town, they look at all their data, including how many calls they've had," he said.
(Listen to the full interview below:)
Aaron
You're running for the community board again. Why did you decide to run for a second time?
Satnam Bains
The first two to three years, the first term, was like a learning curve: learning how the council works, what the processes are and how slow they are sometimes. I feel like there's some key projects that we can get over the line in the next term, if I'm elected, that we've already started.
Aaron
For someone who's working in the private sector, how has it been interacting with the council?
Satnam Bains
It's very slow and frustrating at times. Like going around in circles. But once you get the right contacts at the council, then things start to pick up, and that's what this term has been like. I'd like to give a shout out to all the current community board members and Lisa Thompson. We've got a lot of progress this term, if you go back and compare it to other years. It's about finding the right contact and constantly asking for updates.
Aaron
That's what it is. Just keeping on it?
Satnam Bains
I see you've come to pretty much all of the meetings and you've just had one issue: that we need fields, soccer fields. So it’s just about constantly putting it in there and keeping on reminding them, right?
Aaron
It seems to be that saying something once is never enough. Is that partly just because there's so many competing issues, do you think?
Satnam Bains
It could be. It's just that, for example, you've got a big interest in football. Someone else has got a big interest in the wharf project. Everyone’s got their own desires, their own priorities. The council do have a lot on their plate, but it's about us advocating for our community voice at the table.
Aaron
Is it just a process of trial and error, finding the people who are the right contacts within council?
Satnam Bains
Yes, it's finding the right contacts and putting the community’s voice on the table, making sure that the community has been heard and following it up.
Aaron
Let's just go back a step. Most people know who you are, but maybe tell us a little bit about yourself, like where did you grow up and what were you doing before you were in the Four Square?
Satnam Bains
I grew up in South Auckland. I went to university in Auckland. I graduated with a bachelor’s in business, majoring in accounting. Prior to this, I was just helping out at the family businesses. Corner dairies and liquor stores. Then about six years ago, I moved to Raglan and I’ve never looked back.
Aaron
You must have been pretty young when you bought Four Square?
Satnam Bains
I was pretty young, actually. Early twenties.
Aaron
Did that feel like a scary thing, at that age?
Satnam Bains
The first couple of months, I was wondering what I’d got myself into. I was having lunch like at 5 o'clock. But it’s got better.
Aaron
Talking to you at one point soon after you were here, I think you were trying to zero in on what the community was about. So what did you learn about the community? This Raglan community.
Satnam Bains
Raglan is a really slow-paced community. They want change, but the change needs to suit Raglan. If there is change, it needs to fit into the Raglan picture. They don't want big buildings and they want to keep life simple here. Little things matter for this community.
Aaron
So what did you learn about the values of the community?
Satnam Bains
Oh, we look after everyone, right? We're one big family in Raglan. If you scratch my back, I scratch your back.
Aaron
How many people do you employ now?
Satnam Bains
We've got about 25 at the moment. We've got a few more coming.
Aaron
I'm interested to know how it's just been for you through the lockdowns?
Satnam Bains
It's been hard. I’ve had the store for six years, and running the store during COVID was pretty hard.
Aaron
Did you do something with the butchers?
Satnam Bains
When the butcher was unable to operate in the first lockdown, we took all his meat, so that nothing had to go to waste.
Aaron
That happened to a lot of butchers, didn't it?
Satnam Bains
Yes, it happened a lot. The legislation wasn't clear enough.
Aaron
They were throwing rules at the problem thick and fast.
Satnam Bains
Obviously it was the first lock down, I think, this country has ever had.
Aaron
Certainly, in anyone's living memory. So is that how it works in a small community?
Satnam Bains
I just wanted to look after him, because he's part of this community. So if I could help him in anyway, I offered my support.
Aaron
Was it like that in South Auckland growing up, because it's such a different population?
Satnam Bains
It's quite different there. You do get to know people, but not as much as in Raglan. People do know who you are there, but not to the same extent as in a small community. The whole town here knows who you are, once you get behind it. We didn't just help the butcher, we helped Raglan Roast as well. We sold their coffee throughout the lockdown as well, in our store.
Aaron
I know a lot of people might have been surprised, but coffee wasn't considered an essential service [laughs].
How's things with the family, because you had a child during lockdown as well?
Satnam Bains
Yes, I had a baby girl during lockdown. She's two and half now, so she's a Covid baby.
Aaron
What are the issues that you've been focused on when you've been on the community board?
Satnam Bains
I want to get the community’s voice. I want to get all the feedback from the community and take it onto the table. And I'm going to use my business knowledge to make decisions.
Aaron
How does the business knowledge apply?
Satnam Bains
Making sure numbers work. Making sure it's business viable, at the same time, right? We're there to look after the community, but we don't want to suffocate anyone.
Aaron
You don't want to screw up financially, which has happened to the odd council from time to time. How much business stuff do you think you can apply to council? Because everyone does want them to be more businesslike, but there is more to them than just being a business.
Satnam Bains
Yes, for them it's not all numbers. My main focus is to get the community’s voice, get their feedback and take it to the table and constantly keep hounding the council.
Aaron
How do you get community feedback?.
Satnam Bains
I get everyone through my supermarket pretty much every day.
Aaron
You don't have to do anything, they just come to you?
Satnam Bains
I don't have to do anything. I just have to say a simple greeting and then I get: this needs to be done, or this is good what you guys are doing. I've had a lot of people come in and say that about Places for People. You know, throughout the whole country there's been a lot of Places for People infrastructure put into towns, but most of it's been ripped out. Because they didn't get the feedback from the community.
So, we – Dennis, Chris and Tony, and actually the whole community board – actually got behind the project, and got feedback from the community, made our own changes to it and then went out with it. If we had done what the council had first proposed, I'm pretty sure it would have been ripped out by now.
Aaron
So successful democracy has got to have feedback.
Satnam Bains
You've come into all those meetings, and you’ve seen how on the board we all had different views, but we got into it at the end and we had a good group, I think.
Aaron
From the outside, it does look like that. Two community boards ago, the relationship with the council wasn't very good at all. We've heard that from the ones who've been on the board for two terms -who said that first term was just about rebuilding the relationship with council.
Satnam Bains
That's what we have done, and we've maintained that good relationship with the council.
Aaron
What about issues with security or crime, because I know you've been at the forefront of that with the shop.
Satnam Bains
We are in the process of working with the council, police and camera licensing trust. So we are looking at getting funding and putting in cameras throughout the town. Also number plate recognition cameras, so they can pick up a stolen vehicle from Te Uku, and it gives the police enough time to combat them.
Aaron
How much of a big deal is this for local business owners who've been ram raided?
Satnam Bains
It's a lot, because it's just another expense after COVID; another expense to your business. You can only take so much before you give up. Obviously during and after COVID, we've haven't had that many tourists come to Raglan, so every penny counts. If you're having to clean up the mess afterwards, mentally and financially it's quite hard.
Aaron
I know that some businesses have been struggling to get staff. Has that been an issue for you at all?
Satnam Bains
Staffing has always been an issue in Raglan, and after COVID it’s been a bit more of one. But I've managed we've got a team of 25.
Aaron
So it's OK. People are looking forward to some of the young tourists coming back and filling in the gaps employment-wise in town. But I've been wondering, where are they going to live?
Satnam Bains
That's the other issue. Accommodation is a major issue in this town. I've faced it as well, because I get staff that have accommodation during winter, then come summer they get given a notice saying we're coming back, can you please vacate our house. So they've got two options, to either find a house within four weeks or leave town.
Aaron
I guess some of them chose to leave. So that'll be the test coming up in a few months.
Satnam Bains
Yes, in a couple of months. And the campground gets full pretty quick. The campground want people coming and going regularly, they don't encourage permanent stays there.
Aaron
I think you get a month or something.
Satnam Bains
A month max. It’s the same at the backpackers. I don't know how long it is at the backpackers, but I'm pretty sure it's not permanent.
Aaron
If they let people treat it like a house, then it would just become a boarding house.
Satnam Bains
That's something that we could hopefully work on this next term; work with the council and see if we can do anything.
Aaron
What do you think can be done?
Satnam Bains
I think we need more affordable housing. There should be some land somewhere that the council can free up.
Aaron
Do you think the council has some land around somewhere that's on their books that we're not very aware of that can be built on? I ask that question because a few years ago they sold a couple of bits of land which would have been perfect for affordable housing.
Satnam Bains
Nothing that I'm aware of, but I can look into it if I'm re-elected next term, or if I'm not I'll go and ask the question at one of the meetings.
Aaron
It's becoming an increasingly large issue and everyone is talking about it, but do you think it's very easy to solve from a community board power level.
Satnam Bains
It's more of a central government issue, but it starts from the bottom. If you start raising it from the lower level, then you finally get heard at the higher level. I'm not really a big fan of building small houses, because it's not really good for people. Mentally it’s not good for people to be in a small area. So, building small houses is not really something that I think would be viable. It needs to be decent sized houses where you can actually move around in your house.
Aaron
What things do you want to achieve in the next term?
Satnam Bains
The main one will probably be the security cameras. The security of the town. Get that up and running to send the message out to pretty much the whole country. That Raglan is a front leader. Raglan’s always been in front, what with Xtreme Zero Waste and Plastic Free. So we want to be in the front and say we've done this initiative in our town. And hopefully we can bring crime down. It's quite high at the moment, crime in Raglan.
Aaron
It's certainly visible, that's for sure.
Satnam Bains
Yes, car thefts particularly, and there's always a police officer out in the mornings.
Aaron
Well, that's a good thing, I guess, in that context. Now, I’ve got to a question - you’re really busy. Are you possibly too busy to be on the community board? Because you come to meetings a bit later than other people sometimes, and you’re away more often.
Satnam Bains
I’ve only missed two meetings.
Aaron
A lot of the community board members will have reports to give, but I think there's been less from you. I’d just like you to talk about that, how you're dealing with it and coping with the time required.
Satnam Bains
The time is fine. I've been helping out with the security camera project, but stayed off the Places for People project, because my business is a direct conflict. I didn't want to get involved in it, because it involved playing around with the main street. We've actually got a new management team starting at Four Square in a couple of weeks, so I should have more free time on my hands.
Aaron
That's good to hear, because for anyone who's running a business, and you’ve got 25 staff, you can’t do it single-handedly.
Satnam Bains
I've got two to three senior management staff members starting in the next couple of weeks.
Aaron
Is Andy still there? He's the guy we all seem to know. The second in charge. What do you call him?
Satnam Bains
Store manager. And the three management roles we’ve got starting and all experienced and they’re from Raglan. That will free me up a little bit.
Aaron
That's good to hear, because you’ve got a young family as well, so it's busy, busy times. Now, we talked about housing. What are the issues that you’re hearing from the community, that people come in and accost you about in the shop?
Satnam Bains
The speed limit coming into town; all of a sudden, you're slammed with 40kms. I’ve had a few people coming in about that. The intersection at Greenslade Road. Customers saying it's unsafe, which we've already raised with the council a number of times.
Aaron
They have a kind of bureaucratic reason not to do anything about it just yet, don’t they?
Satnam Bains
Yes, so we just have to keep hounding them about it.
Aaron
I think there's a bylaw review coming up next year or something that they want to put it in. I guess at council speed that’s not that far away.
Satnam Bains
Also, like I said, with the policing, that comes down to numbers. We've got to report every single small crime. I've always advocated that, even if it's a small crime or something’s happened, just get on the phone and report it. Because when they review the numbers of the police officers in town, they look at all their data, including how many calls they've had. So I encourage everyone to report everything. Even at a council level, if you see something, report it, because the more reports we get, the faster we'll get heard.
Aaron
We were talking about that number plate recognition camera out at Te Uku. Something I’ve picked up form that is that if your car gets stolen, report it right away, because it might be about to be used for a burglary. If one of those cameras is around, the police will get it. I don’t know how quickly or how long it takes for the camera to pick it up and for the news to get to the local officers?
Satnam Bains
It's pretty quick, because that's the time frame. That's why it's probably being placed at Te Uku, because of the time frame. Even if they're alerted that there's a stolen car around town, the people don't always commit the crime straightaway. They might come here and have lunch or dinner or something. They might plan it all out, and be sussing out the area, scoping it out. But if the police are alert and go for a little drive and see the stolen car, they can probably save the crime from happening.
Aaron
Yes, and keep an eye on them. Did you have someone ram raid the store?
Satnam Bains
Yes, last year we had a couple of ram raids, but nothing this year so far. They didn’t get much, it’s just mentally it's frustrating, because of the mess that they leave behind; it takes days to clean it up.
Aaron
I guess you’ve got to close the shop for a while as well.
Satnam Bains
Yes, close the shop and the staff get scared. They get worried.
Aaron
I feel sorry for the stuff at the BP. Often there's just one or two of them. That's got to be pretty challenging.
Satnam Bains
They had a hold up a couple of weeks ago.
Aaron
That's what I'm thinking of. That would be hard if you were the person on duty. It would be hard to go back in after that.
Coming back to the council, some of the predictions for population growth in our town are pretty big. Long term, what do you see happening with Raglan?
Satnam Bains
At the moment with the Census, we're at roughly about 4000 I think.
Aaron
It's a bit of a guess because we're between the Census periods, but it probably could be up there.
Satnam Bains
Looking in town today, we're in winter at the moment, I think 4000 is quite accurate, but I'm pretty sure it doubles in summer.
Aaron
Yes, at least. It probably triples or quadruples around Christmas and New Year.
Satnam Bains
Yes, those two weeks, it could triple. But in general in summer, I think it gets to about 8000.
Aaron
Are you measuring that through your accounting?
Satnam Bains
Not accounting, if there's 4000 at the moment during winter, we get sort of double with the summer population, in terms of the business coming through. And also with the cars and the traffic stream. On a summer’s morning, if you come for a walk, everything is busy, but at the moment, it’s sort of dead this morning.
Aaron
All the car parks we can see out the window are empty right now.
Satnam Bains
Is the new Census due out soon, perhaps next year?
Aaron
Was the last one in 2019? That would make then next one 2024. We’re kind of halfway through the Census period.
So, in terms of growth, obviously parking and roads are an issue, but people also want to retain the culture and the vibe of Raglan. The issue of delegating more powers to the community board, do you think that's going to help us plan more for the future?
Satnam Bains
Yes, it will do. Especially in Raglan, that will help us look after the character of Raglan. If the council give us that power, the six people that get elected, plus the counsellor, we understand Raglan better than the council do. So, I think that'll be more favourable for Raglan.
Aaron
What sort of powers do you think the community board could have?
Satnam Bains
Making instant decisions, instead of going back to the council and then waiting for them to come back to you.
Aaron
What sort of decisions? Can you give some examples?
Like we've got the local lawn company working, but that's not quite there.
Satnam Bains
Yes, but that goes out to tender. We've actually got a hall committee that manages the halls. The council don't manage them. For tenders, the last tender round the community board worked with the council to make sure the tenders go to a local company, so the money circulates back into Raglan. All our electrical works goes, I think it’s Stendy that does it. They tender for that contract.
By more powers, I mean the ability to make instant decisions about what needs to be dealt with. Giving the board the power to go back to the council and say this is a priority. This is number 1 priority, and this is number 2 and number 3. Instead of going back to the council and saying this is an issue, you guys prioritise it. Like in the coming months, dealing with the soccer fields, all the floods etc that would be a priority. There's no point dealing with it during summer when no-one is playing there; we should be dealing with it during winter.
Aaron
I think someone came to the community board a few months ago and suggested we should put some vehicle stops in front of Super Value, because there's no curb there, so people can potentially drive up onto the footpath. Is that one of those things that's disappeared into the council and not come back out?
Satnam Bains
The council came back to us and said that car park is not owned by the council, which it is. So it's gone back to the council, but nothing has come back.
Aaron
I think the footpath is on private land. You've seen the plan, have you?
Satnam Bains
It’s council land. They need to get it updated or get the right person to deal with that one.
Aaron
One of the things I imagine is that the boundary line runs partially through the car park area, like a slice or something.
Satnam Bains
Things like that just get left in the too-hard basket, so we just need to follow up with the council and say, what's the progress on that?
Aaron
Before you go, do you want to tell people why they should vote for you?
Satnam Bains
I'm in the community. You guys pretty much see me every day in the store. I'm going on to the community board to make sure your voice is heard. So if you want someone that wants to take your voice to the table, vote for me. And we'll go from there.
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