23 March 2022
Media: Rotorua Daily Post
Topic: Changes announced to Government's COVID Protection Framework
Enquiry
As you know, the Government will be making an announcement this morning re vaccine mandates and passports.
I would really appreciate it if Steve Chadwick and Geoff Williams could respond to the following questions after the announcement has been made:
Questions for the Mayor:
- How do you think this announcement will affect Rotorua?
- In light of this announcement, what do you think is the top priority for Rotorua moving forward?
Questions for Geoff Williams
- Will this change anything in terms of the council's operations?
- Anecdotally, how has the council's staffing been affected by Covid-19 and vaccination mandates before today?
- Do you think the announcement today will help the council's staff retention?
Response
From CE Geoff Williams:
Following today’s announcements we’ll take the time to review our vaccine policies and determined if and when change is needed.
Our policies are driven by our responsibilities for the health and safety of our staff and to date during the Omicron wave more than 90 staff have been impacted – either getting sick themselves or needing to isolate due to being contacts – so that is a significant impact on our organisation although services to the community have not been impacted.
We’ve provided support for staff who have had to isolate and anecdotally, it appears most staff who have become sick with COVID have contracted it from household contacts, indicating that our policies have worked to keep COVID at bay as much as possible within the organisation.
*The reporter was informed that the Mayor was involved in today’s Local Government Commission Representative Review hearing which was likely to take most of today and that she was unlikely to have sufficient time to consider what was announced and provide a comment today
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Media: Rotorua Daily Post
Topic: Weather-related preparations and callouts
Enquiry
Reporter sought information and any commentary on weather-related incidents occurring/being responded to in the Rotorua district and any preparations being made for further expected heavy rainfall
Response
Reporter was referred to THIS LINK on Council’s website where updates were provided throughout the day as more information came to hand. This included urging people to take extra care on our roads and providing information about how to report matters to Council.