Yesterday, Dunstan constituency Cr Gary Kelliher called on the Otago Regional Council to delay setting up a $2 million fund for large-scale environmental projects for 12 months, but that was rejected by the majority of councillors.
Cr Kelliher also called for a cap on staff numbers at the council below present levels, but that too did not find favour.
However, councillors did ask chief executive Richard Saunders to provide a summary of council spending on salaries, staff and associated work programmes within the council structure "for a high level understanding" in time for deliberations on next year’s annual plan.
The plan is for year two of the present long-term plan and the proposed rates rise is a result of nearly $6.1m, having already been trimmed from next year’s planned operating spending.
The council’s 2024-34 long-term plan originally included a planned rates rise of 13.8%, but after a suite of public transport service improvements did not receive NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) co-funding last year, $4.7m worth of projects was slashed from the coming year’s spending.
In a report to councillors yesterday Mr Saunders said the remainder of the savings had been found through the removal of proposed new permanent staff, the removal of the next tranche of ORC-led environmental projects and a general review of all expenditure across the organisation.
During questions on the annual plan, he told councillors yesterday the organisation had about 359 full-time staff.
Cr Kelliher called for that number to be reduced to 325 over the next two years.
"I'm not trying to single out any individual staff.
"We are very lucky we have an awesome team of staff, but the council has grown so quickly over the past few years that that expansion that has rapidly happened year on year on year, to my mind, has just slightly overstepped to where I think it can be viewed as beyond value for money."
He was trying to put a cap on staff numbers so that in a couple of years’ time councillors were not talking about staff numbers in the 400s — and to show ratepayers "we're prepared to look at prudence and financial management".
Cr Andrew Noone said he believed it was a matter of good governance to have a cap, or ceiling, on the number of staff at the organisation and the number put forward, 325, over two years amounted to a 5% reduction year on year.
"I don't think it's an impossible or unrealistic task, but I think it's important that that governance send a signal that we need to have a ceiling."
Cr Kate Wilson said she agreed with Cr Kelliher’s intent, but she could not support his motion because she did not know what the reduction would mean for the organisation.
"I don't think that this is necessarily the correct way to do it, partly because we don't know what that means and we can't take that out to the community as part of this consultation."
Cr Laws said in 2018-19 the council employed 174 staff.
"We've more than doubled our staff in the last five or six years. Show me the discernible improvement in the Otago environment, water improvement, anything that we could measure as environmental improvement in the last six years."
Cr Alexa Forbes pointed out "environmental problems are generations in the making and generations in the fixing".
"And it's short-term thinking in the extreme to expect immediate return on investment."
The bid to cap staff failed 7-4.
Cr Kelliher’s bid to delay the $2m fund for large-scale environmental projects also failed, 8-3.
Consultation starts on March 17, with hearings in May.
