John Schrader said he was told research of council records would cost $100 an hour. Photo / Leanne Warr
John Schrader said he was told research of council records would cost $100 an hour. Photo / Leanne Warr
Tararua District Council paying $800,000 for consultants in a year and charging $100 an hour to respond to requests for official information has raised the ire of a ratepayers’ group.
Council chief executive Bryan Nicholson has defended both the consult spend and charging as legal and necessary.
He says thedecision to invoice Dannevirke Ratepayers & Residents Association $100 an hour to respond to a Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act (LGOIMA) request was because the request was broad in scope.
If the information had taken less than an hour of staff time to compile it would have been free, he said.
On his council’s consultants’ bill of $885,904 for the 2021-22 financial year, Nicholson said it was not significant compared to other councils, and necessary as there were significant infrastructure issues in Tararua that needed a level of expertise to resolve.
But Dannevirke Ratepayers & Residents Association members at a meeting on Monday night claimed Tararua District Council was being wasteful with ratepayer money and not being transparent about it.
Deputy chair John Schrader said the committee’s question under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act (LGOIMA) had initially been submitted under the umbrella of the association but the committee felt they had gone unanswered, so they submitted them individually.
Schrader said he questioned how many consultants had been engaged and their areas of expertise.
He said he was asked for more information such as a timeline and told any search with the information he required would take an extensive search of council records and a number of hours to complete, which the council “would be entitled to charge at $100 an hour.”
He wrote back questioning this, adding that with available technology, unless the information was filed in a disorganised manner, it should be readily accessible.
He said that as a ratepayer, he felt he had the right to access “public knowledge material” without charge.
“This council states that it wants to be open, honest and transparent, but going by my request for information, this is far from the truth. I really felt that they’re putting obstacles up by charging us.”
Les Trigg, who put in his own request, said it was important to question why Tararua was spending so much money on consultants.
“We’re actually meant to have experts within the council that are meant to be dealing with these issues.”
Council chief executive Bryan Nicholson said the council had responded to the ratepayers' association. Photo / NZME
Chief executive Bryan Nicholson said council received a LGOIMA information request from the Ratepayers’ Association on October 13, and it responded on October 20.
“This was well within the 20-day timeframe outlined in the Act.”
He said some private information about individuals was declined, and as the information request was significant, the process and the cost of the request was outlined.
“The Act allows Council to charge reasonable costs - however, the first hour of staff time is not charged.”
Council also asked for clarification on the information as some of the requests were very broad.
“For example, we have asked for a time period for one of the requests, as keeping it open-ended, we would not be sure on how far back we needed to research,” Nicholson said.
The estimated time for the Ratepayers’ Association’s specific LGOIMA was eight hours, at a cost of $700.
He said since the council had sent its response, it had not heard back from the association on how it wished to proceed.
“For them to say during the meeting that we have not responded is simply untrue.”
Schrader had sent in another LGOIMA request in October, and the council responded on the same day asking for further clarification as no timeframes were received.
“On November 8 we received a bit more clarity from John and are currently working through his request.”
Nicholson said the request was still within the 20 working days and, as the request would require significant officer time, it was likely they would need most of that period.
On council spending, he said the council was prudent in how finances were managed.
“We are not immune from the financial crisis and the rising costs that we are all currently experiencing locally and around the world.
“What I can assure the public is that any investment that we make into our assets is for the betterment of our community, now and into the future.”
