Golden Bay Community Board February meeting
Charge-out rates continued to exercise the minds of board members and councillors at Tuesday's community board meeting.
At its last meeting, the board received notice of a $336 charge for one hour of the Tasman District Council CEO's time.
In the chair's report to the board, Joe Bell reported that the charge dated back to October and was for "unspecified jobs on unspecified days". Since then the board had tried to find out what the jobs were and how long they took. At Tuesday's meeting council's community services manager Lloyd Kennedy told the board that he had enquired on the board's behalf and had been told that the charge was incurred when CEO Paul Wylie spent time replying to emails sent by Mr Bell.
"We will not be able to fulfil our role and responsibilities if, by doing so, we incur exorbitant hourly rates being levied against our community by TDC" said Mr Bell.
Mr Kennedy explained that TDC managers must fill in time sheets itemising their time in ¼ hour slots so that their work can be charged to appropriate budgets.
Mr Bell reported that the statute defining the CEO's role mentions "providing advice to members of the local authority and its community boards" and pointed out that any charges incurred by the board were actual charges rather than a "paper figure charged against a governance budget."
Councillor Stuart Borlase said, "If we think something's important enough to go and ask the CEO, we should pay the going rate. You can go too far in the direction of being under-budget."
Councillor Noel Riley said that the board should continue to ask for details of the work being charged for but wondered, tongue-in-cheek, if Mr Kennedy was to ask questions of the CEO on the board's behalf, whether the time spent responding would also attract a charge.
Other items:
Labyrinth Rocks Park has been closed this summer. A group of residents called the Friends of Labyrinth Rocks has volunteered to take care of the attraction but there has been a delay while council's engineering services department seeks solutions to the car parking and toileting problems.
Salisbury Bridge was closed for part of the tourist season as well and the board wanted to find out how the closure came about, when the decision was made and what maintenance was carried out to allow the bridge to be opened to the public again.
Takaka triangle stopbank. The board passed a resolution to ask council to revisit a 1997 report into a proposed stopbank with a view to putting the proposal out for public consultation. The move was prompted by last November's flood event.
LTCCP. Board members expressed their frustration at the limited extent of their involvement in the development of the LTCCP. They had been involved in a discussion with the CEO and a planner but they felt that they could have made a bigger contribution if they had participated in some of the staff-council workshops that were part of the process. Cr Borlase explained that the workshops were inter-dependent.
"We've been trying to make the LTCCP a more readable and accessible document. Each of the workshops was built on the preceding one. You just couldn't have come in halfway. If you want to do a councillor's job, stand for council. It'd be great if the board had a workshop on the plan when it comes out," he said.
Housing. The board heard a presentation from Michael and Spring Thomas about affordable and sustainable housing. The Thomases represent a group that is attempting to get building compliance costs reduced for homes worth $200,000 and less.
Cr Borlase explained that the fees have to come from somewhere and, if council reduced them in one area, they would have to increase them others.
"We know of people in Golden Bay who are in good jobs and who want to stay here but they say they are right on the edge of leaving because of the high cost of housing," said Spring.
Public Forum.
Fresh FM. Representatives of Fresh FM came to explain that their centrally-located broadcasting facility in Takaka was an ideal medium for disseminating information at any time, but especially in times of emergency. Cr Riley, as a member of the trust that administers the radio transmitter on Mt Burnett, agreed to meet with the Fresh FM team to investigate further co-operation.
Rototai community. NgAng reported on progress on the Rototai community mural and gardens. He said that council had told him that tenders for stage two of the cycle/walkway there would be called for this summer. He said that aspects of stage one of the project were actually more dangerous than the situation it replaced and urged council to proceed with stage two as quickly as possible.
In-committee. Board member Carolyn McLellan was "grumpy" about the amount of business being conducted in-committee by council and its committees.
"The latest enterprises subcommittee minutes were a farce," said Mrs McLellan. "It's all secret again, apart from the fact that the chairman has been given two tickets to the boat-show in Auckland."
"There is such a thing as commercial sensitivity," said Cr Borlase.
Cr Riley, who is on the enterprises subcommittee said that the majority of the subcommittee members are frustrated by the amount of business conducted in-committee. "I'll be raising the issue," he said.
"If you don't have openness, you do have conjecture," said Mr Bell. "Not many of the decisions that are being made in-committee are being made public later. It is the council's responsibility to see that only appropriate things are dealt with in-committee. The board has written to council on this issue but there has not been a reply. It's not only the enterprises subcommittee, it's happening elsewhere too."
Neil Wilson
