Senior council staff miss key meetings for New York trip

Saturday, 9 March 2024

Four of Wellington council’s most senior staff will be in New York while key decisions are made on the city’s long-term budget and infrastructure plans.

Chief executive Barbara McKerrow, chief infrastructure officer, Siobhan Procter, transport and infrastructure manager Brad Singh and underground asset programme director Denise Beazley are taking part in a Harvard University class for city leaders which starts this weekend.

McKerrow returns to her office on March 19. Procter will be away until the 29th.

That means they will miss a series of councillors’ meetings and crunch votes as the capital grapples with water, infrastructure and fiscal crises, as well as issues with housing affordability and a downturn in the hospitality sector.

Their absence covers meetings on the long-term plan (essentially the budget) and housing intensification next week.

A six-hour committee session on the plan follows the next day where water infrastructure, the sell-off of the public stake in Wellington airport, and rates rises are all on the agenda.

Councillors will agree on the draft plan, which will then go to residents for feedback in April and May. It now includes a proposed rates increase of 16.4%, on top of the 1.6% levy for a sludge plant.

The staff will also miss an environmental and infrastructure committee, discussing water service delivery, and housing intensification.

Procter - the main liaison between utility Wellington Water and the council - will also be absent during a regional mayoral forum with government ministers to discuss water and the potential amalgamation of councils. It is also slated to set up a steering group for a new water services entity. She’ll miss a further LTP meeting on the 26th.

Some councillors have voiced concern about the “terrible timing” of the trip.

Acting chief executive Stephen McArthur, said McKerrow and her colleagues are “contactable if required.”

“Our executive leadership team members are fully able to deal with the Council’s work programme over the next few weeks,” he said in a statement. “ELT members accountable for finance, planning and governance are in Wellington and will lead on the District Plan and LTP issues next week at the committees.”

There is no cost to the council for the trip, the costs of which are covered by Bloomberg Philanthropies, which is funded by former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg.

But some councillors have voiced concern that senior staff wouldn’t be available to share information or answer detailed questions.

Ray Chung said: ”This is the most critical time with far-reaching decisions for our city. Our CEO Barbara McKerrow and key infrastructure executives will not be here for them.

“When the council votes to adopt the Wellington District Plan on March 14, they will be 14,000 km away in New York. The decision has been scheduled for months.  It is the culmination of six years of work and many millions of dollars of resources.”

Diane Calvert said: “No matter how many times residents say the council isn’t focused on their needs, there’s always a clever response. Likewise too, there’s always a new example residents can point to that tells them we are not.

“Now more than ever the city needs all its leaders working together on solving Wellington’s most urgent crises- its financial and water pipes woes. It’s not the time for Bloomberg to be waiving its credit card around to distract us.”

The Harvard class comes after a prestigious award to Mayor Tory Whanau, who was accepted as one of 40 city leaders to take part in the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative last year.

Whanau said, in a social media post, that the team are developing an asset map of the city’s underground water, power, gas, and telecommunications infrastructure and that will enable a move away from paper records.

McKerrow said in an email to staff the map would give certainty around pricing projects, greater preparation for earthquakes and storms, improve safety for construction workers and speed up construction and improve pipeline planning, reducing disruption.

“That will mean we can be smarter about how we fix and improve our city’s underground systems,” she said. “Given the state of Wellington’s pipes, and the enormous number of unknowns that currently exist around their condition, you can imagine how critical this information will be, in that space alone.”

The council staff will be accompanied by Jonathan Manns of real estate services firm Jones Lang LaSalle, Nick Miskelly, from Chorus, Kara Puketapu-Dentice, chief executive of Taranaki Whānui and Sean Wynne, deputy chief executive officer of government agency Crown Infrastructure Partners.