Meeting of the Hawke's Bay Regional Council
Date: Monday 16 June 2014
Time: 9.00am
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Venue: |
Council Chamber Hawke's Bay Regional Council 159 Dalton Street NAPIER |
Agenda
Item Subject Page
1. Welcome/Prayer/Apologies/Notices
2. Conflict of Interest Declarations
Decision Items
3. RWSS Special Consultative Process - Consideration of Submissions 3
Monday 16 June 2014
SUBJECT: RWSS Special Consultative Process - Consideration of Submissions
Reason for Report
1. The purpose of this paper is to outline the process to be undertaken to hear and consider submissions received on the Council’s Statement of Proposal to invest up to $80 million in the Ruataniwha Water Storage Scheme.
Background
2. Having received a business and investment case from Hawke’s Bay Regional Investment Company Ltd (HBRIC Ltd) to invest in the Ruataniwha Water Storage Scheme HBRC has advised HBRIC Ltd that any decision to invest up to $80 million in the RWSS is subject to HBRC:
2.1. having received and being satisfied with its own legal advice on the RWWS documents and all related legal matters
2.2. having received and being satisfied with its advice from the RWSS Business Case Assessment process and advisers
2.3. having received and being satisfied with its advice from the Alternative Investments Analysis process and advisers
2.4. having received the Draft and Final Decisions of EPA Board of Inquiry processes on Plan Change 6 and the RWSS Resource Consents and being satisfied that the RWSS can proceed as proposed under the decisions made on the advice of HBRIC Ltd
2.5. having undertaken a Special Consultative Procedure of public consultation regarding whether or not to invest in the RWSS via HBRIC Ltd, and having made its determination to make such an investment, and
2.6. receiving confirmation from HBRIC Ltd that all Conditions Precedent to Financial Close of the investment by all investing parties in the RWLP have been either satisfied or waived by agreement of the parties.
3. This agenda item presents the next step in the process envisaged in paragraph 2.5 above. The other processes identified in paragraph 1 above are at various stages of completion and must all be achieved if any final investment is to be made.
Special Consultative Procedure
4. For a number of councillors this will be the first time that they will experience decision-making under a Special Consultative Procedure. It is worthwhile explaining how it works, as interpreted following findings of the courts through case law.
5. The Special Consultative procedure is a process involving an exchange of information between two parties (in this case HBRC and the Hawke’s Bay community). HBRC provides its proposal(s) to resolve a particular issue, or information about the issue or problem; in return the community provides its views on the issue or problem.
6. The third element of the consultative process involves the local authority considering the information it received during the earlier part of the process and deciding whether and how that should affect its proposal or its view on the issue.
7. From time to time community groups may claim that “their views were ignored” or “the council didn’t listen” or even “the community voted against this decision”. That is to misunderstand the nature of consultation under a model of representative democracy. The results of consultation are a source of information into a decision-making process, not a substitute for information. A local authority is obliged to consider information received during a consultation process with an open mind, but consultation need not be determinative.
8. Nor does consultation involve one party presenting or telling the other what it intends to do. The party doing the consultation may bring a proposal or working plan to the process (as is proposed in the attached Statement of Proposal). This does not mean that the proposal is “the final word”, indeed HBRC must demonstrate a willingness to hear views and consider change (even if this means starting anew).
Statement of Proposal – Key Points
9. The Statement of Proposal examined two options – that HBRC invests up to $80 million in the Ruataniwha Water Storage Scheme (RWSS) or that HBRC does not invest. No other options have been considered, as:
9.1. If the RWSS is to proceed it will rely upon up to $80 million from HBRC as a key investor (so no intermediate figures are seen as feasible for the project), and
9.2. The specific resolution from 31 October 2012 was to undertake the Special Consultative Procedure on this proposed investment, and did not envisage that HBRC would consider investments in any other projects as part of this proposal.
10. The Statement of Proposal included the key elements of the RWSS and referred interested parties to additional reports, already publicly available, that provide further detailed information on the RWSS.
Preferred Option
11. The preferred option set out in the Statement of Proposal is based upon the recommendations of Council’s investment company – HBRIC Ltd – which was tasked by Council with preparing a business case for Council on the RWSS. The business case was delivered to HBRC on 26 March 2014 and recommended that HBRC invest up to $80 million in the RWSS, subject to a number of conditions precedent.
12. HBRC referred the business case from HBRIC Ltd to Deloitte for an independent peer review. Deloitte delivered the final version of their peer review to HBRC on 28 May.
Decision
13. As outlined in paragraph 2 Council is working through a number of steps prior to making a final decision on whether or not to become an investor in the Ruataniwha Water Storage Scheme. This final investment decision will be considered by Council on 25 June.
14. One of the challenges for both HBRC and for the general public is to be reassured, through what is undoubtedly a complex commercial and public process, that Council has the opportunity to be informed and demonstrate comfort with the final conditions precedent prior to financial close.
15. The Board of Inquiry (BoI) will release its final decisions no later than 28 June 2014. The draft decision included the required resource consents for the RWSS and these are unlikely to be reversed. The final decision on Plan Change 6 will provide greater certainty on whether or not the RWSS can proceed under the framework of that specific decision.
16. Once this is known, and assuming the final BoI decisions do provide for the RWSS to proceed, the expected sequencing of the conditions precedent is as follows.
16.1. Confirmation of the minimum water uptake threshold of 40M m3 is advised by HBRIC Ltd and received by Council, followed by
16.2. Confirmation of other institutional investors is advised by HBRIC Ltd and received by Council, followed by
16.3. Confirmation by Crown Irrigation Investments Ltd of its investment is advised by HBRIC Ltd and received by Council.
17. It is expected that the agreement for the construction contract will not be part of this sequencing but will however be advised by HBRIC Ltd upon completion.
18. As part of the receiving of final notification that all conditions precedent have been met staff expect to be recommending to Council that its investment in the RWSS be listed as a ‘strategic asset’ (as is the Port of Napier Ltd) in accordance with Part 6 of the Local Government Act 2002.
Public Engagement
19. The Statement of Proposal and the Summary of the Statement of Proposal were publicly notified on Thursday 1 May and the consultation period ran until 5pm, Tuesday 3 June 2014.
Details of the public engagement process are summarised below.
RWSS Flyer
53,000 Facebook Ads 12,430 BettertoKnow 726
Print Ads 19 Radio Ads 750 Media Releases 3
Library Displays 8
Public Meetings 17 Attendees 474 Other
Meetings 6
Home Show foot traffic 4,000
20. The RWSS investment special consultative procedure resulted in 199 submissions. Of these, 138 (69%) favour RWSS going ahead, 51 (26%) are against and 10 (5%) are unstated. The Green Party pro-forma submission of 950 against and 2 in favour counts as a single submission, consistent with HBRC’s processing of previous submission rounds. Submissions in favour were received from all four of the region’s territorial councils.
www.bettertoknow.co.nz
21. The ‘better to know’ website within hbrc.govt.nz attracted 726 visitors. There were a total of 2,939 unique page views with 4,463 pages viewed overall (some pages were accessed multiple times).
22. The four videos hosted on The Benefits page of the site received 23, 22, 22 and 20 views respectively.
Facebook Advertising
23. Advertising on facebook extended the campaign’s reach to 12,430 people/ pages, of which 11,878 reside in Hawke’s Bay.
Public Meetings
24. A total of 474 people attended the 17 public meetings held by HBRC on the RWSS investment proposal.
RWSS Meeting Attendance – by Area
Group Presentations
25. Additional presentations on RWSS were given, by request, to Napier City Council, Central Hawke’s Bay District Council, Wairoa District Council, Mr Apple (3 people), Grey Power (Napier, 60 people) and CHB Businesswomen (27 people). A meeting of Federated Farmers in Wairoa on 15 May was attended by 47 people where debate on RWSS resulted in ‘a 100% vote in favour of the dam’. HBRC’s stand at the Better Home & Living Expo was a public opportunity to talk with some of the 4,000 attendees on the weekend of 16 - 18 May.
Consultation Budget
26. The total budget of up to $84,595 covered the regional flyer, press ads, radio ads, venue hire, library packs, social media advertising, the Better Home & Living Expo, video case studies, web/ digital engagement, concept development and delivery. The consultation project was delivered on time and within budget.
27. Thirty-seven (37) submitters have asked to speak during council’s hearing of RWSS submissions
Hearings Procedure
28. The procedure for considering submissions will be that Council:
28.1. Hears all verbal submissions as per the attached timetable
28.2. Considers those submissions as well as written submissions and staff responses to submissions which are attached.
29. Council will consider all the information provided to it, including information provided by submitters, when it makes its decision on whether or not to invest on 25 June 2014.
30. Following the decision on 25 June each submitter will receive a letter from Council setting out Council's decision.
Decision Making Process
31. Council is required to make a decision in accordance with Part 6 Sub-Part 1, of the Local Government Act 2002 (the Act). Staff have assessed the requirements contained within this section of the Act in relation to this item and have concluded the following:
31.1. Sections 83 and 85 of the Act set out the requirements of the Act where the special consultative procedure applies.
31.2. The issues to be considered in this paper are those issues raised by members of the community that have submitted to the Council on the proposal to invest in the Ruataniwha Water Storage Scheme. All submissions are an integral part of the special consultative processes set out in Sections 83 and 85 of the Local Government Act 2002.
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Recommendations That Council: 1. Agrees that the decisions to be made on issues submitted on the Statement of Proposal to invest up to $80 million in the Ruataniwha Water Storage Scheme are made after the provisions included in sections 83 and 85 of the Local Government Act 2002 have been followed. 2. Receives and considers the submissions and hears those that are presented in person.
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Liz Lambert Chief Executive |
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There are no attachments for this report.
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Monday 16 June RWSS Submissions Hearings Timetable |
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9.00 |
Welcome / Apologies / Prayer etc |
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9.15 |
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9.25 |
#26 D Appleton |
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9.35 |
#27 Grenville Christie |
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9.45 |
#35 G F Pain |
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9.55 |
#32 Joseph Marie Gerard Antoine Wuts |
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10.05 |
#31 Hugh Ritchie |
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10.15 Morning Tea |
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10.35 |
#36 Bill Sutton |
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10.45 |
#40 Xan Harding |
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10.55 |
#46 Paul Harris |
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11.05 |
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11.15 |
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11.30 |
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11.40 |
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11.55 |
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12.05 |
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12.15 |
#66 Peter Butler, Mayor Central Hawke's Bay District Council |
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12.35 Lunch |
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1.10 |
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1.20 |
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1.30 |
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1.40 |
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1.50 |
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2.00 |
Catch-up time |
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2.10 |
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2.20 |
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2.30 |
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2.40 |
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2.50 |
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3.00 Afternoon Tea |
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3.20 |
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3.30 |
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3.40 |
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3.50 |
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4.00 Close for the Day |
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Tuesday 17 June RWSS Submissions Hearings Timetable |
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9.00 |
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9.10 |
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9.20 |
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9.30 |
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9.40 |
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9.50 |
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10.00 |
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10.10 Meeting Close and Morning Tea |
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