Like a stern principal confronting students caught smoking weed under the bleachers, Napier Deputy Mayor Annette Brosnan warned her colleague councillors – specifically those campaigning for election – to not deceive voters by misrepresenting the facts around Council performance over the past term.

To make clear what she was talking about, Brosnan cited five specific examples of ‘inaccurate’ statements or claims made by candidates, which she proceeded to correct with the facts in each case. She did not associate the statements with individual candidates, but the ‘perpetrators’ in her sight were readily identifiable.

In short, her warning at the end of a public Council meeting was: Don’t lie … I’ll be watching.

The entire episode took about six minutes and can be viewed here at the very end of the 26 June NCC council meeting (starting at 3:26:00).

Of course, facts are not always what they seem to be and are always open to interpretation. Actually, the big fights are not about facts, but what to do with them. That’s what campaigns should be about.

Brosnan herself is not a re-standing candidate, but is a departing leader who, as human nature would have it, would likely not wish to see the NCC record – of which she was a major shaper – tarnished or misrepresented. Nor the record of re-standing Mayor Wise, who she served enthusiastically and presumably supports.

However, with that caveat, she performed a valuable service by raising the core problem that voters will need to deal with over this election season – knowing who to believe when the blizzard of candidate claims and counter-claims really hits us.

Incumbents re-standing are tricky. They have a record to defend – not as much for individual actions, but as perceived co-conspirators in their council’s overall performance, which should be reasonably verifiable. And they actually know what happened and why – they can’t plead ignorance. So incumbents need to be especially careful about what they say … and we should unforgiving if they misrepresent the facts.

Newbies are untethered … in some cases from reality. They can claim or promise anything they think they can get away with, usually with not much relevant information or insight. When it comes to fresh candidates, for the most part voters are playing poker and betting on the draw, unless the person has some demonstrated record of community service that illustrates their values, integrity and competence.

I like the idea of retiring councillors like Brosnan speaking up. BayBuzz will be offering them a platform to do so. Sure, we need to be aware that they might be protective of their public ‘legacies’ (mistakes?), and they might have preferred candidates, but they do have far better understanding of the issues than most, they’ve grappled with them, and they know where the bodies are buried. They will know who the bullshitters are.

Obviously our local media has a role to play. I can only speak for BayBuzz. You can see the level of effort we’ll be making through our Election Central project. But there are five councils and probably eventually more than five or six dozen candidates to cover.

That said, we will do our best to call out candidates who are ducking the tough issues or clearly playing with the facts.

Voters, you can help yourselves, and us, by insisting upon specificity. Because that is something that can be examined.

We’re all in this together. And we’ll deserve the outcome we get.