Official Information Request - 16 May 2018

Sent: Tuesday, 12 June 2018 4:31 p.m.

Subject: TRIM: Request for information re Museum.

I refer to your email of 16 May 2018 to Her Worship the Mayor requesting information on the Museum, which was referred to me under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act. Below are responses to your questions as per your email:

1. How much maintenance was done in the 2 years before the Kaikoura earthquake and how much was spent on it?

2014/2015 $506,523 this included geothermal pipe replacements

2015/2016 $295,240

2016/2107 $310,937 (Museum closed 18 November 2016 )

NB: Maintenance costs include carbon filters that scrub sulphur from the air at approximately $80,000 per annum

2. How much maintenance has been done since the Kaikoura earthquake and the cost involved?

Since closure $72,982 has been spent on maintenance. This has included repairs to leaking roofs, maintaining the building to Building WOF standard which includes emergency lighting (which is a requirement while we still have staff working in the building), mechanical servicing including HIVAC and filter replacement for remaining exhibitions.

3. What was the cost to Ratepayers for the redundancy packages and what have the remaining staff been doing since the Museum has been closed?

When the Museum closed the cost of redundancy was $67,603.

Other staff filled vacant positions in various parts of Council ie: the library and customer centre.

The remaining staff have been working on decanting all exhibition furniture and removing and relocating the objects/Taonga from the museum to a storage facility; working with lenders that are affected by the closure including Te Arawa; continuing business as usual answering some 200 queries from the community and other institutions; continuing to provide events, programmes and educational services to the community; on-going care of the objects (over 50,000) and Taonga in the collection; curatorial and exhibition support for other projects around the city; assisting engineers and consultants in the various assessments of the building in preparation for the repair and strengthening phase of the project.

4. Please explain why we would need to spend $32 Million to do the required maintenance and earthquake strengthening and how you can justify that amount?

The 110 year old Bathhouse is a category one heritage listed building and is an iconic part of Rotorua and New Zealand's heritage. It was the first tourism investment in New Zealand by the government of the time. The costs are for earthquake strengthening and restoration which are unique to this building due to the materials used in construction in 1908, for example unreinforced pumice concrete. The size and complexities of repairing the building as well as making good the heritage features after the insertion of strengthening are extremely time consuming compared to a new building project and are expensive and in some cases require specialist trades. The work, once completed, will ensure the building will be here for the benefit of future generations, as have the many of millions visitors have since its opening in 1908.

During the 2018-2028 Long-term Plan consultation the Rotorua community indicated that repair of the Museum building was a priority over the term of the plan.

As per the Act, we are obliged to advise that you may contact the Ombudsman at the address below if you have any concerns with the response provided by Council, by writing to:

The Office of the Ombudsman

PO Box 10 152

WELLINGTON 6143

Alternatively, you may email info@ombudsman.parliament.nz or use the online complaints form available at www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/make-a-complaint.

Regards