2 April 2020

Media: Local Democracy Reporter

Topic: Impact of COVID-19 on council staffing

Enquiry

Kia ora, Can you please tell me:

• If any council staff have been offered voluntary redundancy as a result of the Covid-19 situation, and if so if any have accepted?
• If so, what are their roles? If you can't tell me the specific role for privacy reasons, from what team/group?
• Have any council staff been made redundant as a result of the Covid-19 situation, and if so what their role is? (and as above, if not specific role, then what team/group)?
• Has the council ended the contract of any contractors (both businesses and individuals) - if so which businesses and what roles (and as above, if not specific role, then what team/group/work area)?
• Does the council expect any reduction or loss of staff as a result of the Covid-19 situation? If so, in which areas?
• What roles have been re-deployed as a result of the Covid-19 situation, and where to?
• Can you please also confirm the council's general approach regarding retention of staff at this time [I realise it was touched upon in last week's meeting, but I'd like to reconfirm as those comments are a bit old now and in any case, may have changed]?

Response

From Rotorua Lakes Council Chief Executive Geoff Williams:

Like anyone in the workforce our staff are key income earners in their families and staffing changes at a time like this is a serious move that would have significant implications, for the staff and their families as well as the wider community. Redundancies at this time would see more locals without income and with reduced spending ability that then has ripple effects into our broader economy.

Council is the provider of a wide range of essential services for our community and at the moment, in addition to business-as-usual work including the provision of essential services, nearly 50 staff have been redeployed to our Emergency Operations Centre, providing welfare support as part of the national state of emergency response.

So the organisation is very busy right now and demand for our services won't reduce when we move out of Alert Level 4. We will need to keep providing essential services and will be expected to take a leadership role in the district's recovery. As every organisation is doing right now, we will be looking at costs but will continue to be under pressure as an organisation and will be busier, rather than having less to do for our community.

Contracts are not being cancelled. Projects contribute to our economy, delivering value for the community and providing income for companies who employ locals and sub-contract to other local companies. To start cancelling or postponing capital works projects at this time would cause further damage our economy, put more people out of work, and erode what the Government is trying to do to help stand up new projects to boost economic recovery nationally.

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Media: Local Democracy Reporter

Topic: Council spending on events

Enquiry

Following on from a request made under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act (LGOIMA) - see HERE - the reporter sought comment on the 2019/20 events spend, as follows:

• How does this spending compare to previous years spending on events?
• How does this spending compare to budgets for these events?
• Overall, is it over or under budget?
• What is the council's understanding of the attendance of these events? Were they all well-attended? What is the measurement of success for these events?
• How much was the cost to each ratepayer, on average?
• In what other ways are these events valuable to ratepayers - that is, in terms of economic and social benefits to the city?
• And any other comments the council believes relevant context for this information.

Response

This request was referred on to be dealt with as a formal Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act (LGOIMA) request given the work and time that will be required to gather and compile the comparison information requested in questions 1 to 4.

It was explained that the comparison information will require a similar process to that required to provide the original information (which was provided in response to a formal LGOIMA request).

It was further explained that the other questions would require input of events staff who were currently working in council's Emergency Operations Centre which is providing welfare support to our community during the lockdown.

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Media: Radio NZ

Topic: Impact on Rotorua of reduced domestic flights

Enquiry

Radio NZ sought an interview with Mayor Chadwick regarding the downscaling of domestic flights and the impact of this locally.

Response

Mayor Chadwick made the following key points:

• Only seeing flights for essential services now locally
• Airport remains operational to deal with the likes of flights for medical and civil defence personnel during Alert Level 4
• Usually at this time of year our airport averages about 24,000 passenger movements a month so the drop has been catastrophic
• However, ready to scale back up as soon as that is possible
• What that looks like we can't predict at this stage
• Airport CE working very closely with Air NZ re managing flights and capacity so we're ready to go again when that's possible
• Tourism has benefitted our economy to the tune of more than $80m a year so COVID having a huge impact in Rotorua (tourism and related hospitality and retail sectors)
• Council working to understand and mitigate the impacts across our community and key sectors