1 May 2024

Media: Rotorua Daily Post

Topic: Te reo Maori real estate signs

Enquiry

*Follow on from the enquiry and response in yesterday’s Heads Up The reporter requested comment from the Mayor about Andrea Fenton, the real estate agent using bilingual signage.

Response

From Rotorua Mayor, Tania Tapsell –

“Rotorua was the first bi-lingual city in New Zealand, and 40% of our population is Māori, so it’s great to see Andrea sharing Māori language in her business.

“This follows a trend locally, and nationally, of people choosing to learn and use te reo Māori more.

“Real estate is a challenging and competitive market at the moment so I congratulate Andrea on finding an innovative and uniquely Rotorua way to promote houses for sale.”

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Media: Local Democracy Reporter

Topic: InfraCore update

Enquiry

*NOTE: this enquiry was made to InfraCore

I was at the [Infrastructure & Environment Committee] meeting this morning and am doing a small thing on the InfraCore update - I was wondering if you were able to clarify something for me?

In the report it says project revenue was not achieved due to an inability to attract resource - what is the resource? I.e. was it staffing issues or something else?

And are you able to explain for me the difference between the actual and budgeted for admin expenditure?

Response

From Infracore Interim Chief Executive, Regan Fraser -

In the report it says project revenue was not achieved due to an inability to attract resource - what is the resource? I.e. was it staffing issues or something else?

It was staffing, we were unable to hire the qualified people we needed that would have given us the ability to complete the project work that was budgeted.

And are you able to explain for me the difference between the actual and budgeted for admin expenditure?

The main cause for the $498k variance in Admin expenditure is the fleet costs. I covered that off briefly in my presentation. We have a very aged fleet, and there had been an assumption that Council would proactively invest in the most unreliable vehicles which would lower the cost of operating and maintaining them. Because this hasn’t happened the fleet costs are much higher than assumed.