Rotorua Lakes Council funds a number of events, including Crankworx. Photo / Ben Fraser
Rotorua Lakes Council funds a number of events, including Crankworx. Photo / Ben Fraser
Rotorua’s arts and events sector has been spared proposed funding and job cuts after city councillors decided it was too important to the local economy.
Rotorua Lakes Council began deliberations on the draft Annual Plan on Wednesday and is due to complete these on Thursday, with a final plan to be adopted and rates to be set on June 28.
The council received 2100 public submissions on the draft plan, the second most it had ever had.
Many of the council’s proposals were cost-cutting measures aimed at limiting the rates rise to the 7.22 per cent consulted on. Staff told the meeting post-consultation revisions had reduced the draft increase to 6.25 per cent, prior to Wednesday’s decisions.
Among the proposals debated in the meeting were reducing the event investment fund from $500,000 to $300,000, and disestablishing two roles - one in event attraction and one in event planning - to save $150,000 in the 2023/2024 budget.
Community wellbeing deputy chief executive Anaru Pewhairangi said half of the investment fund was marked for Crankworx so cutting it would leave little room for other events.
Elected members voted against the cuts.
Councillor Gregg Brown said Rotorua was a tourist town: “We want to attract events ... let them know we are open for business”.
Councillor Trevor Maxwell said events lifted the wellbeing of the city and councillor Don Paterson said events were a cornerstone of the economy.
Rotorua councillor Gregg Brown. Photo / Laura Smith
“We need to build Rotorua back to what it was, if not grow it ... events are an opportunity we need to grow from, develop and perhaps become the number one events location in New Zealand,” Paterson said.
Brown also asked if the job could be done without the two roles proposed to be cut. Pehwairangi said no: “If we do want to realise the benefit of events then these become critical.”
He said a review was about to be done aiming to improve the management of events.
Rates funding will, however, be reduced for the Sir Howard Morrison Performing Arts Centre as councillors voted to pull $200,000 and find other ways of generating that amount through revenue.
Councillors voted to save two other arts sector jobs that were proposed to be cut to save $128,000: a volunteer and creative communities role, and a community arts advisor.
Councillor Rawiri Waru said feedback from the community was that arts and culture were “part and parcel” of the social fabric of Rotorua.
Pewhairangi said there had been strong feedback from staff as to the value of the roles and removing them would present challenges, and the value to the community was significant.
Councillor Fisher Wang said the city was lucky to receive money from Creative New Zealand for local projects, which was handled through the volunteer and creative communities role, and felt cutting it would endanger that funding.
Councillor Robert Lee said 60 per cent of submitters did not support disestablishing the roles.
Waru said the submissions conveyed how arts and culture was the “heartbeat of any community”.
Acting mayor Sandra Kai Fong began the meeting by saying councillors heard many times about the impact the cost of living and Covid-19 lockdowns had on the community.
She said it needed to balance what the community wanted it to deliver while setting achievable rates, which had been set in the consultation document at 7.22 per cent.
“Your [public] feedback has been tremendously valuable to us and it will shape our decision today.”
