Whether Contemptuous & Corrupt, Sheer Incompetent, Or 'All of the Above' You Just Prevented This (And Probably More Than One) Ratepayer from Exercising Their Legal Right to Vote

I've had it with Masterton District Council's CEO Kym Fell and the open contempt he displays for ratepayers - and the spineless councillors who cower away from any responsibility to stand up to the way he treats us  (by way of a couple of recent examples, see   here and   here . . . and yes, in case you're wondering, those email exchanges and repeated requests for a response were wholly ignored by Fell and co. of course, despite their salaries being paid by those they treat with such utter contempt).

I had hoped to exercise my legal ratepayer's right to vote in today's Local Government elections, in the hope of - for what it's worth - adding my individual weight to the ballot count for at least one nominee I thought might have a bit of backbone going forward.

But the powers that be (or maybe that shouldn't be) have made sure I can't.  When I called their "customer service" number at 10.30 this morning (leaving me plenty of time to drive to a polling venue to cast my vote), I learned that they had ensured the only venue for in-person voting was closed today, the official voting day i.e. Saturday, October 11.

Have a listen to the below recording of my phone call - during which I sought two pieces of information: Where I could vote in person, and why (since they've ensured I can't by not having a venue available to do so), I didn't receive any early voting papers (not that this would have been my preferred method, anyway).

Note, especially, the officious and condescending young prat who, in full telling-off mode, advised me firmly that it is Council's "expectation of (me)" that I ensure Council staff do their  job. 

But hey . . . If you're one of the well-paid inhabitants of the Masterton District Council's C-suite, why comply with any of your obligations to ratepayers, anyway? And if not a single one of the paid "Councillors" inhabiting seats around the Council table have a pair (or the female equivalent thereof) to represent their constituents' rights over management's preferred conduct, why bother?

Readers:  If you don't want to sweat through the five minutes of on-hold time in the below recording, fast forward to 4.58 minutes in, in the below recording. The phone is finally answered about then (although it then goes into more on-hold time after that).  NB: It's no wonder the culture of contempt permeates all the way down to the call centre frontliners . . . they're being led by "example".