Some property owners prefer to pay rates with cash. Photo / Getty Images
Some property owners prefer to pay rates with cash. Photo / Getty Images
Rotorua Lakes Council says anyone fearing the loss of an early rates payment discount can contact its call centre to make alternative arrangements, or use alternative electronic services.
The issue was raised in a council Operations and Monitoring Committee meeting held via video conference on Thursday.
It followed a letter to the editor on September 1 from an elderly person concerned he would be penalised for not paying his rates bill on time. He preferred to pay with cash at the council or via the bank, both of which were closed due to Covid-19 alert levels.
In the meeting, councillor Reynold Macpherson said he was "still getting complaints from the public [who] are fearful they'll lose their rates discount for early payment because they can't get in to the council due to lockdown".
He asked if council organisational enablement deputy chief executive Thomas Colle could review a decision to "not put an assurance on the council website" for those people.
Colle said the council encouraged those affected to make contact with the call centre.
"Our call centre is happy to work through those issues with them. Alternatively, our website has directions on how they can do that as well."
Councillor Raj Kumar said he thought it would have been "kind" for the council to place an advertisement in print or radio media providing information for people who paid rates by cash.
"It is easier for a few people to come to us but a lot of them are not coming to us and they are worried.
"There is a very high proportion of cash-paying people."
Colle said that was likely not the case. He had asked his team to look into rate payments for the August instalment and there was about a 15 per cent increase in people not paying on time.
Rotorua District councillor Raj Kumar. Photo / NZME
"The majority of them were large businesses from Rotorua that didn't pay. We believe the reason they didn't pay was because their accounts payable functions had shut down and they weren't in a position to work in a mobile environment."
He said other than that, there had not been a significant change in rates collection for the instalment.
"While I do appreciate, Councillor Kumar and Councillor Macpherson, that you do have people approaching you and are wanting to pay cash, we are not able to do that. We are encouraging them to contact our call centre, but we also believe that this is a very, very small number of people and not a widespread problem.
"If they make contact with our call centre, they make an arrangement and we can offer them that discount if they pay within that arrangement.
"I have to say though, and this is where I do struggle a little bit, councillors, is that I appreciate that some people wish to pay by cash, but in this world you can't pay your power bill by cash, you can't pay your phone bill by cash.
"You do have those mechanisms available to make alternative payment arrangements."
He said he understood some didn't wish to make those alternative arrangements and if so they could call the council's contact centre.
Kumar said the number might be small but he did not believe it was insignificant.
"In percentage it's small but in volume it might higher and it might be a lot of people who are not saying it."
DEPUTY CHIEF EXECUTIVE TO LEAVE COUNCIL
Council community wellbeing deputy chief executive Jocelyn Mikaere is set to leave the council for a new role with the Ministry of Education.
In the meeting, many elected members expressed well-wishes for Mikaere in her new role, with councillor Raj Kumar saying her successor will have "big shoes to fill" and councillor Tania Tapsell saying Mikaere's experience had been beneficial to the council.
She will be the deputy secretary for Te Mahau, Te Tai Whenua, which includes much of the North Island from Waikato down to Whanganui and has about 850 staff.
Mikaere will also have responsibility for a national portfolio that is yet to be allocated, a council spokeswoman said.
Rotorua Lakes Council community wellbeing deputy chief executive Jocelyn Mikaere. Photo / Supplied
"The Ministry of Education has been redesigning to prepare for changes to the education system and is forming a new leadership team. Jocelyn's role is one of three based across the country in regional NZ. This is a first for Ministry of Education."
Mikaere, who began at the council as the operations group manager in February 2020, will finish at the council on September 17.
In that role and as community wellbeing deputy chief executive, she oversaw major projects such as the Rotorua Lakefront, the museum, Te Ahi Tupua sculpture and Sir Howard Morrison Performing Arts Centre, and challenging areas such as community safety.
In the meeting, Mikaere said it had been an "honour and a privilege" to serve the community and the district and she had "loved every minute".
"I'll look forward to being the big Rotorua cheerleader from the [Ministry of Education] space."
