Wellington City Council meets publicly for first time since Crown observer decision

• A Wellington City Council Long-Term Plan, Finance and Performance Committee meeting was held this morning.
• The Government has announced it’s intervening at the council with a Crown observer.
• Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has not revealed whether he has anyone in mind for the role and is taking advice from the Department of Internal Affairs.

Wellington councillors have been warned to “get on with it” and change their behaviour in their first public meeting since the Government decided to put a Crown observer at their “shambles” council.

Councillors have previously only met behind closed doors about the situation but this morning’s Long-Term Plan, Finance and Performance Committee meeting was open to the public.

The first item on the agenda outlined the process for making big spending cuts to salvage the long-term plan (LTP).

“This is going to be hard. It is not going to be easy,” committee chairwoman Councillor Rebecca Matthews told her colleagues.

“We are all going to see things that we love not happen, or happen later, or happen in a different way as a result of the decisions that have been made.

Long-Term Plan, Finance and Performance Committee chairwoman Rebecca Matthews hoped behaviour would improve. Photo / Mark Mitchell

“We need to look forward, get on with it and do so in a way that can increase confidence in our decision-making, otherwise there will not be a next election for us.”

The LTP was upended when the council decided to stop the controversial sale of its 34% share in the airport.

The council must now amend the LTP and possibly cut hundreds of millions of dollars in capital spending to create additional debt headroom to respond to the insurance risks the airport sale was designed to solve.

Matthews said the council’s job was to pass and maintain an LTP because it was essential to everything the organisation did.

She urged her colleagues to remain focused.

“We have a limited amount of time and we are doing it ... with an increased level of scrutiny not only from the media but also from the Government and we will have the observer joining us.”

Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau says the council should accept the decision to appoint a Crown observer and work constructively with whoever is appointed. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Matthews also hoped councillors would improve their behaviour.

“That has been highlighted to us by the minister and I think we all need to take that extremely seriously, so I ask that we all engage in the process in good faith.”

Council officials have warned the LTP amendment, combined with Three Waters reforms, “involves considerably more work in what is a tight deadline” but were confident they have the resources to do it.

Spending cuts to the maintenance and renewal of existing assets should be avoided and projects which are substantially under way should continue, council meeting documents said.

The bulk of the existing LTP’s capital spending amounts to $4.2 billion. When major projects already started are taken out of the equation, like earthquake-strengthening the library and Town Hall and building a new sludge facility, there is about $1.95b potentially available for budget cuts.

The committee will consider options for cuts at a meeting on November 21 to produce a new draft budget before Christmas, which will then need to be consulted on.

“Key briefing and decision points for the LTP amendment are not scheduled until the latter half of November and the Crown observer terms of reference are expected to be finalised by then, and the appointment made,” meeting documents said.

The observer can provide guidance to the councillors and council staff but does not have a decision-making role.

Wellington City Council technically has 10 days to challenge the Government’s intention to appoint a Crown observer, however, Mayor Tory Whanau has said the council should accept the decision and work constructively with whoever is appointed.

Local Government Minister Simeon Brown said he expected a formal response from the council by November 5.

Asked last week whether he had an idea who he might appoint, Local Government Minister Simeon Brown said he was waiting for advice from officials.

“There’s been people putting their names forward but in terms of the official process, we’re going through the Department of Internal Affairs.”

Georgina Campbell is a Wellington-based reporter who has a particular interest in local government, transport, and seismic issues. She joined the Herald in 2019 after working as a broadcast journalist.