19 August 2020

Media: Rotorua Daily Post

Topic: Complaint about street lighting contract tender process

Enquiry

I was wondering if Mayor Steve Chadwick would be interested in making a response to the community's comments to the Sefton situation?

Has Chadwick changed her mind about sitting down with Sefton?

We will be using a handful of comments from this post in the story: see here

Response

From Mayor Steve Chadwick:

To ensure there is no political influence or the perception of political influence, elected members are kept well out of tendering processes. So it would be inappropriate for me to meet with Mr Sefton and that is why I referred this on to the CE, as is usual with operational matters.

I am very concerned about the public reaction I've seen but I have - previously and again today - sought assurances from the CE about the process. He has assured me that Mr Sefton had every opportunity in the tender process but was ultimately not the successful tenderer.

Mr Sefton is obviously disappointed but I have been assured the right things were done. I know he was given feedback, and I understand staff have offered to provide additional feedback to assist him with future tendering if he wishes to take that up.

From the CE:

These public attacks on the council, the process and the successful tenderer are very disappointing.

Tendering is a competitive process. To win, a tenderer must put their best case forward regarding how they will do the work, their qualifications and ability to deliver to the required standards and scale, the systems and processes they use, and pricing. They must meet the criteria in all areas.

At the end of the day, the tender panel considered all tender proposals and selected the one that was superior.

In this case five tenders were received, three from local companies including McKay, which was the successful tenderer.

This process was conducted professionally by a panel of 4 expert staff and 2 external experts. The panel evaluated each tender according to the criteria set out in the Request for Tenders' document and selected the highest ranking tenderer which, in this case, was not Sefton Electrical.

I have met with Mr Sefton to hear his concerns and, based on what I heard, requested an independent evaluation of his tender. This was undertaken by senior staff who were not on the tender panel and their feedback supported the initial evaluation.

An offer has been made to Mr Sefton to provide further feedback that may be useful for future tendering, and we hope he will take up this opportunity.

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Media: NZME (Rotorua Daily Post and BOP Times)

Topic: Threats and assaults on council staff

Enquiry

We are working on a report regarding health and safety of council staff and contractors, following an incident involving the assault of a Western Bay compliance officer. In the questions below I refer to the past three financial years but I'm happy to accept calendar years if that is how your data is best collated.

• how many council employees have been physically assaulted while working in each of the past three years? And how many council contractors?
• Of these, can we please have the details of who (meaning what role) was assaulted, the nature of the assault, what injury was sustained (if any), what follow up action was such as charges laid (if any)?
• Can we please find out if any of these prompted any changes to council protocol, policy and procedure. If so, which incident, why, and what were the changes?
• Also, how many non-injury incidents were there involving council employees in each of the past three years? And how many council contractors? And how many near-miss incidents for each the employees and contractors?
• Some commentary about the prevalence, or lack of, assaults or abuse on council staff and contractors and how the council feels about this would be appreciated. I welcome any additional comment you feel may be important.

Response

The following information and comment was provided:

Comment from CE Geoff Williams:

"People being threatened, abused or attacked while going about their work is totally unacceptable and council staff, like anyone else, should be able to go about their work safely.

Most members of the public treat our staff courteously and with respect but we regularly deal with people who are upset or angry and there are times when situations do escalate.

In recent years our organisation has dealt with everything from verbal abuse, threats of violence and assaults to abuse directed at council or staff via social media and, in May 2015, an anthrax scare.

We take incidents that impact on the safety and wellbeing of our staff, contractors and the public very seriously and as such, take a zero-tolerance approach to abuse, threats or physical assaults.

Where appropriate, incidents are reported to the police, and existing protocols are reviewed and changed if necessary to further minimise the risk to people's safety.

Frontline staff are trained in how to deal with situations that have the potential to escalate and/or where they or other members of the public are or feel under threat."

Information:

Two council employees have been assaulted in the last three financial years. A further employee was assaulted in this financial year to date.

Two council security contractors were assaulted in the last three financial years. Please note, there may be other incidents involving contractor staff members that were not reported to RLC.

The table HERE summarises reported serious incidents involving Council employees and Council Contractors during the last three years.

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Media: Rotorua Weekender

Topic: Historical items uncovered during museum work

Enquiry

I was looking at putting together a story to lead the Rotorua Weekender about how the deconstruction of the Museum was uncovering historical gems! Who may be best to talk too about what's been found? and where it will be kept etc? Maybe even if I could get some more photos!

Response

From Stewart Brown, Rotorua Museum Project Lead and Rotorua Lakes Council Arts and Culture Manager:

• Just hoping to find out how many historical gems had been found in the museum deconstruction? We have found lots of little treasures during the deconstruction phase. (sorry we do not have an exact number)
• How old did they date back? Some of the oldest items date back to when the Bath House building was constructed in 1906-1908, with other objects from 1908 - 1966, when the building was The Great South Seas Spa.
• What did it mean to museum staff finding these slices of history in the museum walls? It is always exciting to make these discoveries and uncover a slice of history. They help paint a picture of this unique building and everything it has seen over the last 112 years.
• What do you plan to do with the items? How much will it cost to store them and keep them crisp? Many of the larger heritage pieces, like the mudbaths, have been removed and safely stored, with the intention of reinstating them to the building once complete. We will keep a selection of smaller items at our offsite storage facility that may become part of future exhibitions.
• Can you tell me about some of the unique things found? Newspapers dating back to 1906 were found in the walls and segments of original cornicing as well as clay and cast iron pipes. We have uncovered some graffiti from various parts of the building. During the removal of larger heritage items in the Mudbath basement we also uncovered : Contents of the strong room -including ledger pages and a diary along with an ink stand and ink wells, a brush from under the men's Doulton bath, a cigarette packet hidden behind the cupboard, old towels from under the baths and a glass milk station bottle found in a room alongside ceramic tiles.

Are there any other comments you wish to make on this? The Rotorua Museum Facebook page will showcase some more uncovered gems over the coming weeks.