Council call: Cut jobs to drop rates

Wednesday, 21 February 2024

'I accept, some of this will be unpalatable,“ said Cr Ewan Wilson, who proposed the idea.

Hamilton’s council is proposing to further slash staff and contractor numbers in a bid to save $104m over the next decade and keep rate increases down.

Councillors Ewan Wilson and Emma Pike brought a plan to the council table during Tuesday’s budget meeting for the draft 2024-34 Long-Term Plan.

They suggested a 7% reduction to the personnel budget and a 10% cut to the consultant budget. That would lead to savings of $10.4m in year 3, and a total of $104m over 10 years, council documents say.

Wilson called it a watershed moment - at the first ever meeting for freshly sworn in Cr Tim Macindoe - and the most important decision this set of councillors would make, while Mayor Paula Southgate said the proposal seemed like a “brutal cut”.

The motion narrowly passed 8-6, with councillors speaking strongly on both sides.

Wilson said this was a hard motion to push.

'I accept, some of this will be unpalatable. There will be at least, potentially, 100 people made redundant in addition to the redundancy we already have.'

The move to further cut staff and contractor numbers passed narrowly, with eight councillors for and six against.

The council currently has 1470 FTE (full-time equivalent staff) and will soon drop to just under 1400, he said.

'I feel we need to go further. I feel we need to take a real look at the consultants. This is an opportunity to send a clear message to the public: we get the message, we are righting the ship.

“This is a meaningful way to reduce the debt.'

He said this would bring the 25.5% rates 'shock' back to about 19.9%.

Cr Mark Donovan supported the motion, noting if the council was a private business, they would be doing the same thing.

“Do we want to be the council that leaves the legacy of being taken over by commissioners, because we don't make the hard decisions? I don't want to be.”

But Mayor Paula Southgate said service cuts would be required and there wasn’t enough information on what they’d be for when the budget went out for consultation.

'We're asking people to agree to cuts that they have no idea what that means.

'You're only peeking at the problem rather than really understanding the problem. So until we do get to the point where I know exactly what the ramifications of this motion will be I'm going to vote against it.'

'You're only peeking at the problem rather than really understanding the problem,“ said Mayor Paula Southgate.

It was tempting to support a motion that could save so much, but the council's Future Fit programme had already been created to address this very problem, Cr Maxine van Oosten said.

'It's only halfway through its implementation so the benefits of it are still to be recognised and realised. To do more would be cutting all the way to the bone.'

Previous councils had been criticised for cutting services, said Deputy Mayor Angela O'Leary.

'Last year we started and we looked line by line by line, every level of service, and none of you wanted to slow the fixing of potholes or mow the grass less.

'Cr Wilson it's very tempting and I respect what you've done but… I can't support your proposal.'

On Tuesday evening, decisions were still to be made about the city’s rates and water management.

Councillors who voted for the proposal were: Andrew Bydder, Mark Donovan, Tim Macindoe, Kesh Naidoo-Rauf, Emma Pike, Moko Tauariki, Geoff Taylor, Ewan Wilson.

Against were Anna Casey-Cox, Angela O'Leary, Mayor Paula Southgate, Maxine van Oosten, Louise Hutt, Sarah Thompson.