The chief executive made the revelation as city councillors returned to the council chambers on Thursday for the first time since New Zealand went into lockdown. They unanimously agreed to initiate a process that would see the city council revisit the draft Annual Plan in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
This will allow the city council to adjust the plan to account for its forecasted $33.2 million deficit and alter the 4.65 per cent rates rises proposed in February before the pandemic began to fully impact the economy.
However, during discussions around the move to revisit the plan, Baxendale said some "realism" is needed and cast doubt over the zero rates rise that several councillors have been calling for.
"The world you were in eight weeks ago is fundamentally different to now, so what may have been seen to be a proposal, and I will say this from a perspective of simple maths, of naught per cent I think will be very unrealistic to achieve," she said.
The city council now faces a race against time to have the new draft plan ready for public feedback from June 12 to June 29.
Mayor Lianne Dalziel and councillors will then have to sign off on the plan by July 30.
The original draft Annual Plan was sent out for public consultation in February. But its adjustment is seen as necessary to account for the implications of the Covid-19 crisis.
There is likely to be fierce debate around rates rises among city councillors, with some calling for zero per cent and others pushing for increases.
Baxendale, who has taken a 10 per cent pay cut to her $495,000 salary in response to the Covid-19 crisis, said the impact of the pandemic on the city council has so far been significant, leaving it in a difficult financial position.
She and her team will provide scenarios to councillors around what the council could look like with a zero per cent rates increase before they are tasked with signing off the Annual Plan.
Baxendale described the scenarios as "levers" and said they would be broken down into four areas, covering cost efficiencies, context around borrowing, how the capital programme would be impacted and what savings would be available.
She said the council has no desire to make "significant changes to significant levels of service" as it would trigger a Long Term Plan process that would "put significant strain on the authority".
