Official Information Request - 28 November 2018

Sent: Friday, 21 December 2018 2:50 p.m.

Subject: TRIM: LGOIMA request regarding Reynold Macpherson

I refer to your email of 28 November 2018 for various information regarding Reynold Macpherson's contact with Rotorua Lakes Council, and respond below:

All communications between Reynold Macpherson and elected officials between 1 January 2014 and 28 November 2018

Council does not have knowledge of emails sent to/from elected members' personal email accounts. Nor does Council keep information on elected members phone calls, individual meetings or diary entries, other than Mayor Chadwick. Mayor Chadwick has no diary entries in relation to individual meetings with Mr Macpherson. Minutes of all Council and Committee meetings, including those where Mr Macpherson has appeared, are available on the Council website - https://www.rotorualakescouncil.nz/our-council/agendas-and-minutes/agendasand%20minutes/Pages/Minutes,%20Agendas%20and%20Live%20Streaming.aspx

Total amount of staff hours and financial cost in relation to dealing with communications with Reynold Macpherson

Attached is a summary of estimated time/costs for staff that have worked on issues involving Mr Macpherson. This information was prepared following a request from elected members at the Operations and Monitoring Committee in June 2018, and covers the period from 1 December 2014 to 27 June 2018. A conservative estimate of the staff time was 309 hours across various levels of Council from executive support staff through to the Chief Executive. Council assessed officer's time at $76 per hour which is the rate Rotorua Lakes Council uses under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act (LGOIMA).

To provide the emails received/sent from/to Reynold Macpherson and elected officials for the period 1 January 2014 to 28 November 2018 has been estimated to take approximately 4 hours of staff time. Similarly to analyse the staff hours and cost from 1 July to 28 November 2018 has been estimated to take approximately 10 hours of staff time. As noted above, Council's normal practice is to charge $76 per hour ($38 per half hour or part thereof). Therefore to complete your request would incur a cost of $1064 (excluding GST). This charge would need to be paid before the information is compiled. Please let me know by Monday 7 January 2019 if you wish to proceed on this basis.

I can confirm, however, that during the period 1 July to 28 November 2018, with regards to Mr Macpherson, Council has responded to:

• 7 LGOIMA questions
• 1 complaint to the Office of the Auditor-General
• 7 media responses
• 1 Letter to the Editor response

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