Wellington council admits error in festive season stuff up
Saturday, 22 November 2025
Tra la la la, oops … Wellington City Council has confirmed it failed to follow proper processes in the delivery of its festive Christmas and New Year events, with a preferred provider continuing to be used despite a lapsed contract.
Chameleon Events has been used by the council since 2018 to deliver a city-wide Christmas event and put on a New Year’s Eve waterfront event, including this year’s Christmas in the Quarters which kicks off with a kids’ craft event at Midland Park on Saturday.
The company courted controversy in 2023 with its road-cone bedecked Christmas tree, criticised for the tone deaf placement as the city grappled with leaky pipes and the resultant road works.
However, it appears Chameleon’s big pay days ‒ each of the NYE events have cost between $250,000 and $293,000 and the Christmas ones between $400,000 and $460,000 (ex GST) ‒ could have been over a while ago.
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The issue dates back to late 2022 when a procurement exemption was granted to allow the council to directly commission one Christmas and one New Year’s Eve event. It was noted at the time that Chameleon was “known to the [events] team and have proven experience in delivery of these services.”
The same report also said there could be “no further exemptions for direct appointment of Chameleon” and that should be communicated to the company, and “… an open tender process will ensure that the Council are getting the best value for money and will allow new providers to tender for upcoming work”.
In February 2023 a procurement plan was agreed to go to market for the delivery of Christmas events only ‒ for a period of three years, with the right to renew for a further two years and a maximum spend of up to $2.14 million over the full term.
The council subsequently ran a closed tender process, but received only one compliant bid. Evaluation panel members found the price quoted unaffordable and recommended the tender be cancelled.
Following the cancellation the events team, headed by manager Stephen Blackburn, directly engaged with Chameleon to put in a bid ‒ allowed in the instance of an unsuccessful tender process.
While it was expected the associated contract would run for a period of five years, the agreement signed with Chameleon Events in September 2023 expired in December 2023. It did not include any renewal rights.
December 2023 was the same month James Roberts, the council’s chief operating officer, told The Post Chameleon was a preferred council supplier of many years’ standing and the fees paid to it sat well under the level required to go to market or tender.
Despite that, and despite the council’s procurement policy stating it was the commercial partnership team that takes the lead on procurement activities, Blackburn or members of his team continued to deal with Chameleon about organising subsequent Christmas and New Year events, without undertaking fresh procurement activity.
A council spokesperson this week acknowledged the blunder and confirmed this year’s events would be the last under the current agreement.
“Council acknowledges that an error has occurred and this has led to the continued use of Chameleon events without the appropriate procurement activity taking place. Council is putting in place steps to ensure this error does not occur again.
“This will include training for the relevant events teams ahead of procurement activity in 2026 for the 2026/7, 2027/8, and 2028/9 Christmas and New Years events, and ensuring commercial procurement oversight of the procurement processes for these events.”
One supplier, who had worked with the council previously, queried why its events teams couldn’t work with WellingtonNZ ‒ which also organised events ‒ to bring the celebrations in-house.
“It would save many millions. Right now, it just seems like they are hand-picking their mates.”
Diane Calvert, chair of the planning and finance committee, said she had also heard concerns from others in the sector, largely around the fact the events weren’t always co-ordinated with the local business community “enabling them to best leverage off them”.
She said a review of the procurement strategy, including how the council contracted for services, had been scheduled prior to October’s election.
“I’m keen to progress this and get it early on the Council's work plan. If we want to be open for business, we need to provide certainty and ensure a level playing field for all.”
The council’s 2022 procurement policy shows it spends more than $500m each year on external suppliers.