1 September 2021
Media: Rotorua Daily Post
Topic: Environment Court case regarding Rotorua landfill
Enquiry
I now have the summary of facts in the matter of Bay of Plenty Regional Council vs Rotorua District Council after a guilty plea was entered in May by the district council to the charge of discharging a contaminant (namely stormwater contaminated with leachate) onto or into land in circumstances where it may enter water.
I'm seeking comment from the council with regard to the offence as outlined in the summary. Can someone please respond to the below questions before 2pm today?
Thank you
Questions:
- Why did it take the council just under four years to plead guilty?
- The council was warned several times over a period of eight years to fix the problem but no solution was found. Why was this not remedied with urgency given the dangerous implications to human health and the environment?
- At any time, did the council warn anyone impacted by the discharging of leachate that it could be dangerous? (For instance, were those who bathed and swam in the Whakarewarewa Village area ever kept informed of the continual discharges)?
- Why were none of the recommendations in a report from T & Taylor in 2015 ever implemented?
- Does the council believe its maintenance of plant equipment at the landfill was adequate?
- Does the council believe it gave the site operators an adequate handover when it took over management of the landfill?
- Have any staff members been disciplined or lost their jobs over the issue?
- Does the council have any comment/apology to make to those impacted as well as ratepayers?
Response
From Chief Executive Geoff Williams:
We can provide some background information (see below) but as this is still an ongoing legal matter, it is not appropriate to provide comment until after sentencing. Council will outline its response to the Statement of Facts at sentencing, which is scheduled for 11 October:
- In 2017 BOPRC brought 6 charges against RLC alleging various breaches of the Resource Management Act for alleged discharges of contaminants at the Rotorua Landfill in March and April 2017.
- The charges followed the heaviest period of rainfall on record in the Whakarewarewa catchment area in the 30 days prior.
- Four charges were subsequently dismissed.
- On 26 May 2021 RLC agreed to plead guilty to 1 of the 2 remaining charges (for breach of section 15(1)(b) of the Resource Management Act which concerned permitting stormwater, contaminated with leachate, to be discharged onto land at Rotorua landfill in circumstances that may have resulted in contaminant entering Tureporepo Stream).
- The other remaining charge against RLC was dismissed.
- Sentencing for the sole remaining charge before the court will take place on 11 October 2021.
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Media: NZME (Rotorua Daily Post and BOP Times)
Topic: Council meetings during lockdown
Enquiry
*NOTE: the reporter also sent this enquiry to other councils around the BOP
Please excuse the joint email but I'm sure you'll appreciate the questions relate to each of you. Ultimately, I want to find out how local councils are ensuring public access to meetings in lockdown. I will need a response by 1pm today.
- How are you ensuring there is transparency with public meetings and decision making, and that the council holds itself up to public scrutiny during lockdown? How is this demonstrated?
- If you aren't live streaming virtual footage of the meeting, why not?
- If you aren’t live streaming, how many days can people expect to wait before a recording on the meeting is loaded online? If the answer is not immediately or that day, please explain how long, and why the lack of urgency. (I’m aware of some waiting up to six days.)
- Have any meeting recordings (from this lockdown and last year’s lockdown) ever been edited or manipulated? If so why? And is this something you can rule out doing for future meetings? If not, why not?
- How have you managed people wanting to present in a public forum during lockdown?
A breakdown of how meetings are managed during the different lockdown levels would be appreciated.
Subsequent from reporter (1):
So just to clarify, I'm using the Oxford and Cambridge dictionaries' definition of livestreaming, which translates to real-time streaming of a live event, as opposed to a recording of a live event that is later made available. This means we will need to amend your reference to livestreaming RLC meetings when they aren't actually streamed in real-time.
With this in mind, can you please why you don't livestream (as asked in the original questions)?
Subsequent from reporter (2):
So RLC meetings are livestreamed and people can watch them in real-time online, as they play out?
Subsequent from reporter (3):
Why does the council not livestream directly onto its website (rather than relying on YouTube) and is this something RLC would consider?
Response
From Oonagh Hopkins, DCE District Leadership and Democracy:
RLC has been livestreaming its committee and Council meetings since 2015 and the livestream recordings are available to the public on RLC’s YouTube channel as soon as they are processed by YouTube.
As is our usual practice, meetings held during lockdown are being livestreamed and are available for viewing afterwards on RLC’s YouTube channel.
These meetings have been covered by local media.
Local media (Local Democracy Reporter and Daily Post) receive notification emails when agendas for committee and Council meetings become public, two days prior to meetings.
Meetings are advertised in local media, are included in the online calendar on Council’s website and previewed on Council’s website.
As is always the case, coverage of RLC committee and Council meetings is also available as news items on Council’s website with links to these posted on Council’s Facebook page.
These decisions are also included in Council’s weekly e-panui which any member of the public can sign up to receive.
The Meetings section of Council’s website includes links to meeting agendas and to livestreaming.
No recordings have been edited during the current lockdown period.
We cannot rule out the need to edit a recording.
Council strives to be a responsible "publisher" and takes the duty of care that comes with that seriously, including with respect to the nature of content published, in any form. That has to be balanced with the need to keep the community informed of council matters that are in the public interest.
There has been an occasion, for example, where a 15-second portion of a meeting was edited to remove content of a speculative personal nature.
There was one occasion last March, when technical problems with the livestream required the use of portions of a back-up recording and a confidential matter inadvertently discussed by elected members was edited out. No public matters or discussions relating to public matters were removed.
There have been no scheduled public forums during this lockdown period.
Upcoming consultation on representation arrangements, as part of RLC’s representation review, will include online public forums as a way for people to gain information, ask questions and provide feedback.
Meetings are held online, via Zoom, during Alert Levels 4 and 3.
At Alert Level 2 meetings are able to be held at the Civic Centre again, with social distancing protocols in place. Elected members who do not wish to come in for these meetings are able to join via online link.
Meetings will re-open for public attendance when we are back at Alert Level 1.
Re subsequent from reporter (1):
We do livestream in real time (via YouTube) and then also, after that, YouTube processes the video which is then loaded to our YouTube channel and remains there for people to view. So we do both.
Re subsequent from reporter (2):
Yes, that is correct
Re subsequent from reporter (3):
On Council’s website there is an embedded video directly from YouTube that livestreams council meetings once they start (see the link here: https://www.rotorualakescouncil.nz/our-council/meetings/livestream) but Council’s website currently cannot directly livestream videos. Having this capability would be something that would be considered if/when Council were to move to a new platform.