27 March 2020

Media: Rotorua Daily Post

Topic: COVID-19 (general)

Enquiry

• How valuable to our community are those working on the front line - the police, healthcare workers, truck drivers, checkout operators etc?
• How important is it that, while they still have to interact with members of the public to an extent, they follow the social distancing guidelines?
• Do you have a general message for our community about staying strong throughout this lock down and their efforts so far?

Response

From Mayor Steve Chadwick:

I want to thank everyone in our community at the COVID-19 frontline ensuring our people are taken care of, keeping us safe and ensuring essential services are maintained. You are doing a fantastic job and we are very grateful. My message to those of us in isolation is don't put our frontline at more risk than they already are in helping to keep our community going. I can't emphasise enough the need to follow the directives and guidelines of our Government, Ministry of Health and police - that is the only way we will stamp this out and every single one of us has a key role to play. We're not on holiday, we are fighting a virus and any non-essential activity and movement around the district puts people at risk. Stay in your bubble, stay strong - kia kaha - stay safe, stay connected and be kind - to yourselves and to each other. ________________________________________________________________________________________

Media: Local Democracy Reporter

Topic: Process for setting of rates

Enquiry

I'm after some clarification on when rates will be able to be set. Of course I understand council cannot make a decision on this without physical quorum and the chief executive cannot do it on their behalf. So when is this likely to occur? I realise that might not be a clear date - but can you please clarify that? Thank you.

What was the reason for not live-streaming the meeting on Wednesday, but instead providing a video afterwards? Given the mayor and a councillor could Zoom into the meeting, why was it that the public (and therefore the media too) could not also Zoom into the meeting?

Response

The following information was provided:

Council decided unanimously this week to align RLC's response to COVID-19 with the Government's strategy to fight the virus, cushion the impact and position for recovery. It was agreed a range of assistance packages, including rating relief packages, would be developed (you'll find reference to that HERE and in the meeting recording if you haven't yet had a change to view these).

As directed by the Council, officers are now working on the development of these packages to bring back to councillors for their consideration.

Regarding the annual setting of rates, as I'm sure you're aware, this happens as part of the annual plan process each year. Unless the situation changes and it is not possible for the normal annual planning process and timeline to be undertaken, the rates will be set at the usual time, at the end of June ahead of the start of the new financial year which starts 1 July.

Given the urgent need to have a meeting before the national lockdown, the priority was ensuring elected members who could not be physically present were able to participate effectively in discussions and decision-making. The meeting recording was uploaded as soon as was possible and decisions made were uploaded to Council's website and promoted via social media as soon as possible. Livestreaming is not a requirement but is something our Council has done since August 2015 as an additional way to communicate decision-making.

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Media: RotoruaNow

Topic: Claims council avoiding rates relief

Enquiry

Reporter sought reaction from the Mayor to the following media release:

ROTORUA COUNCIL AVOIDING RATES RELIEF WHILE CLAIMING TO TARGET SUPPORT

Press Release to Rotorua Now: Reynold Macpherson, RLC Councillor, 26 March 2020

The Rotorua Lakes Council continues to refuse residents and ratepayers any rates relief on the grounds that it wants to offer more equitable and targeted support during the coronavirus crisis.

The RLC's track record on rates affordability shows that this claim is hypocrisy. Since 2013 the Council's rates take has gone up by 33.5% while benefits and pensions have gone up 4.3%. The negative impacts have been greatest on the poor, mostly Maori, and the elderly. To deliver more equitable and targeted support will require a major revision of current financial policy.

Why is the RLC so resistant to rates relief? Many councils around New Zealand have announced rates freezes and other savings to help their people get through the health and economic crises. One reason is that Rotorua's economy had a much-reduced capacity to support the RLC's grandiose Vision 2030 long before Covid-19 struck. Infometrics reported that Rotorua's growth in GDP was only 1.6% for the year to December 2019, significantly below Council's target of exceeding New Zealand's growth (2.3%) and even lower than the CPI (1.9%). They don't want to freeze rates because they can't afford it and do all the things they want to. The contrary truth is that we can no longer afford this Council.

Another possible reason for the resistance to announcing rates relief is that the RLC's leaders could be expecting another fist-full of dollars from the sky. The cash bombs from the PGF (requiring matching debt) and the exclusive meetings with the PM and the Minister of Finance could have seduced the Mayor's power bloc into believing that there will be bail-out packages for innumerate councils in the $12.1 billion promised. There is no evidence of local government packages. Ratepayers remain fully exposed to the twin dangers of this cargo-cult mentality; rates rises and indebtedness.

The central government has frozen most evictions for three months and frozen rents and mortgages for six months. Ratepayers have been left exposed to the whims of local councils over potential rates rises. With the Rotorua District economically compromised by widespread layoffs in forestry and tourism, ratepayers are now asking whether we are all in this crisis together'. Without a rates freeze they will have to carry all of the risk to revenues.

Instead, the RLC's financial policy discussions to date for the coming Annual Plan have focussed mostly on how to reallocate even higher rates across groups of properties with different capital values in order to make them more equitable'. Not on how to increase revenues other than rates and cut non-essential capex and opex. The notional budget for the Annual Plan is full of sacred cows that weak leadership won't challenge and that are driving up unrealistic rates rises.

The RLC's promise to provide more equitable and targeted support is insincere because it lacks the delivery tools. It does not have the information it needs to target support equitably to individuals, groups, businesses and sectors. Only national government agencies hold such data and can mount fine-grained interventions. Punching the air over the need to better target support while lacking the administrative capacity to do so, and denying the need for local rates relief, is little more than political posturing that continues to terrify one stakeholder group; ratepayers.

The only upside for ratepayers is that Covid-19 has stopped Council meetings during the lockdown with executive delegations going to the Chief Executive. Since the delegations do not include the power to set a rate, rates have effectively been frozen until Council reconvenes. In the interim, all ratepayers can hope is for an outbreak of humanity on Council.

In sum, the signs are that RLC is not going to let the health and economic crisis stop them in their tracks. For them, its business as usual.

Our PM is saying "Be Kind" throughout Covid-19. Is the Council's message "Be ruthless?"

Reynold Macpherson

Councillor

Response

From Mayor Steve Chadwick:

Cr Macpherson knows full well that Council is working on a package to support our community. This is nothing more than political posturing which is entirely inappropriate at this crucial time. We agreed as a council earlier this week to align our approach to that of Government in terms of fighting the virus, cushioning the impact and positioning ourselves for recovery. That is the priority and that's what the organisation is working on and will bring back to council within the week.