Mayor Garry Webber and Councillor Margaret Murray-Benge. Photo / Andrew Warner
Mayor Garry Webber and Councillor Margaret Murray-Benge. Photo / Andrew Warner
Western Bay's mayor rebuked a councillor during a meeting in which a $4.6 million plan to redevelop elder housing was being discussed.
At Thursday's meeting, the Western Bay of Plenty District Council was presented with a report asking it to approve applying to the Government's Better Off Funding Package for $4.6 million to be used for the redevelopment of elder housing villages in Katikati, and $700,000 to be used for development planning to leverage housing on whenua Māori (Māori land).
The fund is for projects that will enhance community wellbeing.
Speaking at a public forum at the meeting, Dr Bruce McCabe, chairman of the Omokoroa Residents and Ratepayers Association, said the council's investment policy, developed in June, required housing projects to generate a return that covers the project costs.
McCabe said he felt there was doubt about whether the elder housing project would be self-funding because, in his opinion, the report was "totally deficient" and "inadequate for council to make an informed decision".
He said a decision should be deferred until what he viewed as "adequate technical information" was gathered to avoid "a load on the ratepayers".
He said if the council received the report and acted on its recommendations, he would refer the matter to the Auditor-General.
Next, Kathleen McCabe questioned why elder housing was chosen as she said it was young women with children who were in "dire straits" - "but these dire straits, I am told, do not relate to the older market".
McCabe claimed there had been Official Information Act (OIA) requests that had not been responded to by the council in relation to technical information about the proposal, but Mayor Garry Webber said they had been responded to via a letter.
Bruce McCabe attempted to comment on this, but Webber said his time to speak had ended.
Councillor Margaret Murray-Benge then asked Kathleen McCabe to continue with what Bruce McCabe was going to say but the mayor said: "With all due respect, that is unacceptable, and for an experienced councillor such as yourself, you should know better."
Councillor Margaret Murray-Benge. Photo / George Novak
Murray-Benge responded: "This is a public forum, and we're entitled to the information that is being presented to us."
Webber said the OIA response was "in your [Murray-Benge's] hands".
Ross Goudie presented next and said he felt there was "no financial information [in the report] other than the bare essentials" and he supported Bruce McCabe's message.
Murray-Benge asked the report's author Jodie Rickard, the council's community and strategic relationships manager, what business case was done for the elder housing proposal.
Rickard said the information provided was sufficient for the funding application.
"There is significant work that needs to progress once we have that funding approval in place... our approach is to have the application hopefully get approved.
"We will continue to report back to elected members on that progress."
Councillor Murray Grainger asked what would happen if the application was approved and then the numbers did not "stack up".
"[If] we've applied for funding for something that we then decide not to do... where to from there?"
Rickard said elected members would have to decide where to next".
"There are a huge range of options that council could choose to take... if the base assumptions that we have at the moment mean that it doesn't stack up," Rickard said.
Mayor Garry Webber. Photo / Mead Norton
"We're not anticipating that that's where we're going to end up, but if we did, there are many, many different approaches that you could then take to ensure that the ratepayers are kept safe through this process."
Rickard said they were very confident the application would be approved.
Councillor Mark Dean said the proposal was an "incredible opportunity".
"We're going to use [this money] wisely, because it's the moral and ethical thing to do," Dean said.
"Elder citizens are not well-off, contrary to the misinformation we've heard this morning", as he said those who get into current elder housing had to have minimal assets to qualify.
The council voted to apply for the fund before September 30. Councillors Murray-Benge and Kevin Marsh were the only votes against the motion. Councillor Anne Henry was absent.
