Technofreak:Have a look in most towns and cities and you will see the flashest buildings are the council offices. It seems a bit out of place to me that the councils can afford better offices than their ratepayers.
It's not just council offices, it's anything council-built. From a friend who lives there (so information is second-hand, E&OE), this is the new cultural centre in one of Auckland's very-much-lower-income suburbs:

For context, this is what's across the road:

This is its utilisation for the month of February.