Mr Avery, who has been with the council for seven years, has just been appointed property and infrastructure general manager, following the death of Pete Hansby in January.
Before joining the QLDC, Mr Avery spent 15 years working for the Dunedin City Council in various roles, including infrastructure and operations general manager, responsible for Three Waters, roading, parks and reserves, among other things.
He left in October 2014. At the time, the Otago Daily Times reported that was prompted by the council’s alleged Citifleet fraud, which involved the sale of 152 cars and more than $1.5 million in missing proceeds over more than a decade.
Mr Avery was head of the council’s regulatory services group, which included Citifleet, for most of that time.
In his resignation statement, Mr Avery said "the management buck stops with me".
In Queenstown, he has been the acting property and infrastructure general manager since Mr Hansby’s death, which he described as "devastating, for the family and for the organisation".
"Pete was such a big part of a huge programme of work, well-respected and well-liked, and [did] a lot around the district."
Regarding his new role, Mr Avery said there was a mammoth delivery programme in the capital budget, along with the $86.5 million first stage of the town centre arterial road project, being overseen by QLDC and Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency alliance, Ka Huanui a Tahuna, the CBD upgrade programme was still trudging along.
Mr Avery noted a "lot of work" was required to bring infrastructure up to standard across the district, but there was also a focus on day-to-day operations, like providing safe drinking water, treating sewage and providing roads.
Meanwhile, the council’s draft annual plan’s signalled $106.7 million of capital project deferrals.
"It’s a big operational maintenance job as much as a big capex and renewals programme," he said.
"The council’s annual plan has very large expenditure in those areas ... the [draft] annual plan that’s gone out indicates that, because of the funding challenges, and that’s going to be a challenge going forward as well."— Additional reporting: Philip Chandler
