Agenda of HB Civil Defence Emergency Management Group

HB Civil Defence Emergency Management Group JOINT COMMITTEE

Monday 22 August 2016

Subject: Post-Election Elected Officials Civil Defence Induction

Reason for Report

1. The purpose of this report is to inform the Committee of the proposed plan for induction of elected officials after the 2016 Local Government Elections.

2. It is requested that the Committee agrees to the outline of the induction programme and content.

Discussion

3. At the last meeting in April, the Committee discussed civil defence induction for elected officials post the October 2016 Elections.

4. At this meeting all members agreed that this should occur as soon as possible after the elections. It was also agreed that the Civil Defence Emergency Management (CDEM) Group Office would deliver this in Waipawa, Wairoa, Napier and Hastings with the support of local Controllers and EMOs.

5. Since this time the Emergency Management Advisor (Response and Recovery) has developed a package that involves the following.

5.1. A revised booklet based on the existing Handbook for Elected officials and Council Managers approved by the Committee prior to the last election.

5.2. A three hour (including lunch) forum including short exercises to be delivered at each Council.

6. The forum will cover the following topics:

6.1. Introduction to CDEM in Hawke’s Bay. While there is a need to discuss a little legislation, the main focus of this topic is how CDEM in Hawke’s Bay works and who is responsible for what. This will include a brief overview of the national structure.

6.2. Elected Officials role in CDEM during business-as-usual. The focus of this topic is making the connections between what Council’s do every day and readiness for an emergency. This will include linkages with Council functions such as asset management, planning and community development. How elected officials can become involved with their communities in preparing for an emergency will also be explored.

6.3. Elected Officials role in CDEM during response. This topic will outline the different roles during an emergency and what a state of emergency means. The best way that elected officials can help their communities in an emergency will also be examined. This topic will also include lines of communication and how they might be communicated with during an event so they can feed information back into the response, are aware of the situation and the key messages to be given to the community.

6.4. Personal Preparedness. This will focus on the fact that if they and their families are not prepared then their usefulness to their communities will be greatly reduced during an event. Some practicable advice will be available. The main aim of this topic is to increase their individual resilience during an emergency but also to give them some basic tools that they can pass on to members of their community before an event.

7. As part of the forum there are also two activities based around the 4R’s of emergency management (group work), and two scenario-based desktop activities around how elected officials might respond during an event.

8. It is intended the forums will be as interactive as possible and not involve large amounts of PowerPoint. To an extent each forum will be tailored to the relevant Council.

9. It is requested that the Committee agree to the above forum outline and provide any feedback as to the content.

Financial and Resource Implications

10. The decision recommended in this paper has no significant financial or resource implications.

Decision Making Process

11. Council is required to make every decision in accordance with the requirements of the Local Government Act 2002 (the Act). Staff have assessed the requirements in relation to this item and have concluded:

11.1. The decision does not significantly alter the service provision or affect a strategic asset.

11.2. The use of the special consultative procedure is not prescribed by legislation.

11.3. The decision does not fall within the definition of the Administrating Authority’s policy on significance.

11.4. There are no individual persons affected by this decision.

11.5. Options that have been considered include doing nothing.

11.6. The decision is not inconsistent with an existing policy or plan.

11.7. Given the nature and significance of the issue to be considered and decided, and also the persons likely to be affected by, or have an interest in the decisions made, Council can exercise its discretion and make a decision without consulting directly with the community or others having an interest in the decision.

Recommendations

1. The HB Civil Defence Emergency Management Group Committee agrees that the decisions to be made are not significant under the criteria contained in Council’s adopted Significance and Engagement Policy, and that Council can exercise its discretion under Sections 79(1)(a) and 82(3) of the Local Government Act 2002 and make decisions on this issue without conferring directly with the community and persons likely to be affected by or to have an interest in the decision.

2. The HB Civil Defence Emergency Management Group Committee agrees with the proposal to deliver post Elections 2016 Civil Defence Emergency Management induction for elected officials through forums as outlined in the Discussion section of this report.

Authored & Approved by:

Ian Macdonald

Group Manager/Controller

Attachment/s

There are no attachments for this report.

HB Civil Defence Emergency Management Group JOINT COMMITTEE

Monday 22 August 2016

Subject: End of Triennium Civil Defence Emergency Management Governance

Reason for Report

1. The purpose of this report is to provide clarity as to the governance arrangements for CDEM over the period of local government elections.

2. The Committee is asked to adopt the arrangements outlined in this paper.

Discussion

3. Currently all Mayors and the Chairman of the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council have the authority to declare a local and region wide state of emergency. If the relevant Mayor or Chairman is not available, Councillors then have the authority to declare a local state of emergency within their district or ward.

4. Under the Group Plan this authority is attached to the positions of Mayor, Chairman and Councillors, not named individuals.

5. Where a current elected official is not re-elected (or does not stand), they are still in office and will have the authority to declare a state of emergency until the day after the day on which the official result of the election is declared.^{^[1]} This is also the date when any new Mayor or Councillor comes into office.

6. The one exception to this is the Chair of the HBRC who from the day after the day on which the official result of the election is declared, no longer holds this role until the inaugural meeting of the HBRC (26 October 2016) where the election of the Chair will be held.

7. Therefore during this period of approximately 10–15 days a regional state of emergency will technically only be able to be declared by a Hawke’s Bay Mayor.

8. However there is one complicating factor in that there is a view that until any new elected official is sworn in they are not able to use their powers or make decisions. While this may be an issue, arranging for a newly elected official to be sworn in to exercise powers under the Act is relatively easy.

9. For most Councils there is a gap of about 10 to 20 days between the election results being posted and the first meeting where elected officials are sworn in.

10. Current elected officials that are successful retain the authority to make a declaration of a state of emergency into the new triennium.

11. Should a declaration need to be made during any gap, the back up under the CDEM Act 2002 is the Minister of Civil Defence who can make a declaration for any part of New Zealand. Should this be required, the request to do this should be via the Group Controller to MCDEM.

12. It is therefore recommended that the Committee note the above requirements and over the election period authorise the Group Controller to make a recommendation directly to the Minister of Civil Defence (via MCDEM) for a declaration of a state of emergency where an approved elected official authorised to do so is not available.

Financial and Resource Implications

13. The decision recommended in this paper has no financial or resource implications.

Decision Making Process

14. Council is required to make every decision in accordance with the requirements of the Local Government Act 2002 (the Act). Staff have assessed the requirements in relation to this item and have concluded:

14.1. The decision does not significantly alter the service provision or affect a strategic asset.

14.2. The use of the special consultative procedure is not prescribed by legislation.

14.3. The decision does not fall within the definition of Administrating Authority’s policy on significance.

14.4. There are no individual persons affected by this decision.

14.5. Options that have been considered include do nothing.

14.6. The decision is not inconsistent with an existing policy or plan.

14.7. Given the nature and significance of the issue to be considered and decided, and also the persons likely to be affected by, or have an interest in the decisions made, Council can exercise its discretion and make a decision without consulting directly with the community or others having an interest in the decision.

Recommendations

2. The HB Civil Defence Emergency Management Group Committee notes the above report and over the period of the local government elections 2016, authorise the Group Controller to make a recommendation directly to the Minister of Civil Defence for a declaration of a state of emergency where an approved elected official authorised to do so is not available.

Authored & Approved by:

Ian Macdonald

Group Manager/Controller

Attachment/s

There are no attachments for this report.

HB Civil Defence Emergency Management Group JOINT COMMITTEE

Monday 22 August 2016

Subject: Group Work Programme and Key Performance Indicators Update

Reason for Report

1. The purpose of this report is to provide an update to the Committee on the Group Work Programme and 2015/16 KPIs as defined in the HBRC (Group Administrating Authority) LTP.

Discussion

2. Work Programme. The Group has a current Work Programme approved by the CEG last year. An updated Work Programme for 2016/17 will be presented to the CEG for approval at its meeting later this week. Usually the Work Programme would be provided to the Committee after the CEG have approved it, however the need to move this meeting means that it is now before the CEG meeting.

3. The attached Work Programme continues to build on the work over the last 12 months. The priorities remain the same and are consistent with the objectives of the Group Plan in consideration with the 2015 Capability Assessment Report by the Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management, changes in legislation and post exercise reporting.

4. The only significant changes to the Group Work Programme are the addition of welfare projects which are discussed in the Group Managers General Update later in this agenda. While welfare has been separated out, a significant amount of this work is linked with other projects. The other change is the start of the significant hazard initial response planning project. This will begin after Exercise Tangaroa once staff become available.

5. The priorities for the Group Work Programme for 2016/17 are as follows:

5.1. Developing and Maintaining People Capability

5.2. Community Resilience Plans

5.3. Implementing the Revised Group Response Operating Structure

5.4. Developing Initial Action Plans in Readiness

5.5. Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) Review

6. The attached Group Work Programme for 2016/17 is in draft only. Unfortunately, due to staff being involved in the recent severe weather response there was insufficient time to complete the resourcing and scheduling sections of the Programme. The Work Programme will be included in the agenda on the first Joint Committee meeting in the new triennium.

7. Key Performance Indicators Update. The Committee may recall discussion at its last meeting regarding reporting on existing KPIs for the Group. The current KPIs are in need of review, however we are unable to make significant changes until the next Long Term Plan (LTP).

8. It is intended to develop a new set of KPIs which reflect the objectives of the Group Plan. Those KPIs would be monitored by this Committee rather than the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council (HBRC).

9. In the meantime the attached KPI report for the last quarter of 2015/16 is reflective of the existing KPIs and will inform the HBRC Annual Report.

10. Financial. Financial reporting for 2015/16 was not finalised at the time of writing this report. However initial reporting shows that the Group expenditure and income was to budget with the exception of two matters mentioned in the paragraph below.

11. As was projected in the current LTP, existing reserves from the CDEM targeted rate have largely been expended with $5000 remaining. This use of the reserves was to cover the employment of new staff in the 2015/16 year. Additional expenditure for these new staff has now been added to the 2016/17 budgets as per the LTP.

12. The financial situation of the CDEM Reserves would have been in much better shape had there had not been two significant unbudgeted expenditures. These being one off restructuring costs; and as a result of a resignation, the need to expand the role of the contractor who was planning Exercise Te Matau a Māui.

Decision Making Process

13. Council is required to make every decision in accordance with Part 6 Sub-Part 1, of the Local Government Act 2002 (the Act). Staff have assessed the requirements in relation to this item and have concluded that, as this report is for information only and no decision is to be made, the decision making provisions of the Local Government Act 2002 do not apply.

Recommendation

1. That the HB Civil Defence Emergency Management Group Committee receives and notes the “Group Work Programme and Key Performance Indicators Update” report.

Authored & Approved by:

Ian Macdonald

Group Manager/Controller

Attachment/s

1	Hawke's Bay CDEM Group Work Programme 2016/17
2	Emergency Management Project Process Report

HB Civil Defence Emergency Management Group JOINT COMMITTEE

Monday 22 August 2016

Subject: Capability Development: Training and Exercise Update

Reason for Report

1. The purpose of this report is to inform the Committee on recent activities taking place across the Group in relation to capability development.

Background

2. Training and Exercising across the Hawke’s Bay CDEM Group has been identified as an area requiring improvement through the MCDEM Capability Assessment, the recent Exercise Te Matua a Maui report and a Training Needs Analysis Report.

3. The Hawke’s Bay Civil Defence Group Plan identifies several objectives related to capability development:

REA2 – Ensure all CDEM Group members have the capability to respond to emergencies in their area and promote the need for capability within the emergency services and other partners

REA3 – Continue to improve co-ordinated and integrated emergency management between local authorities and with other CDEM partners

REA4 – Enhance the capability and interoperability of the Hawke’s Bay CDEM Group through well planned, needs based professional development

RES 6 – The Hawke’s Bay CDEM Group will provide co-ordinated support to the response of individual members during a local emergency

RES7 – Ensure that the Hawke’s Bay CDEM Group will be capable of providing support to other CDEM Groups in the country if required

4. In addition to the main objectives of the Group Plan, objectives specific to the building and maintaining of capability are also listed in the Annex to the Plan.

5. In order to ensure that the Group has a consistent approach a Training and Exercising Strategy has been developed and approved by the CEG. This strategy outlines the key activities that will be undertaken over the next 4 years to ensure the above objectives are met. This includes the development of a Group Training and Exercising Plan and a detailed annual training and exercising programme (and a 4 year outline programme).

6. In addition, the Strategy outlines how training will be delivered and monitored to ensure we are meeting the needs of the Group and the requirements for multi-agency relationships to be developed through combined training and exercising. The Strategy also outlines the need for a regular Group Training Needs Analysis to be conducted to ensure that the training and exercising within the Group meets the needs of staff and develops capability in the required areas.

7. The Group Training and Exercising Plan 2016 – 2020 has recently been developed and will be included in the CEG agenda for later this week for approval. This Plan includes clear training pathways for all key staff within the local authorities. The Plan will ensure that staff are trained and exercised on a regular basis to ensure an effective response capability at all levels.

Decision Making Process

8. Council is required to make every decision in accordance with Part 6 Sub-Part 1, of the Local Government Act 2002 (the Act). Staff have assessed the requirements in relation to this item and have concluded that, as this report is for information only and no decision is to be made, the decision making provisions of the Local Government Act 2002 do not apply.

Recommendation

1. That the HB Civil Defence Emergency Management Group Joint Committee receives and notes the “Capability Development: Training and Exercise Update” report.

Authored by:

Jim Tetlow

Emergency Management Advisor Readiness and Response

Approved by:

Ian Macdonald

Group Manager/Controller

Attachment/s

There are no attachments for this report.

HB Civil Defence Emergency Management Group JOINT COMMITTEE

Monday 22 August 2016

Subject: Group Managers General Update

Reason for Report

1. The purpose of this report is to inform or update the Joint Committee of a number of matters and give an opportunity for members to ask questions and give feedback if desired.

2. The matters covered in this report include:

2.1. The adoption of the Red Cross Hazards App to provide information and warnings

2.2. The launch of an internal Hawke’s Bay CDEM Group Contacts App

2.3. Update on work progressing on Community Resilience Plans

2.4. Update on work progressing on Business Resilience Planning

2.5. Update on work progressing on Marae Resilience

2.6. Changes to Group Recovery

2.7. Update on activities of the Hawke’s Bay Lifelines Group

2.8. Hawke’s Bay CDEM Methods of Operation Review

2.9. Welfare Update

2.10. Exercise Tangaroa (National Tsunami Exercise)

2.11. Hazards Research Update

Red Cross Hazards App

3. The Red Cross Hazards App is a free mobile device application which has been adopted jointly by all 18 CDEM Groups in New Zealand to provide targeted warnings and information to members of the public through their smart phone. While this App is not officially endorsed by the Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management, the Ministry has been involved in the process and has no concerns regarding the use of this App.

4. The Red Cross Hazards App was officially ‘launched’ in Hawke’s Bay on 1 August 2016, using social and traditional media. This has received good coverage across a range of online sites, contributing to our preliminary measure of 1100 users during the recent snow/weather event.

5. A test alert will be sent as part of the National Exercise Tangaroa on 31 August, primarily to gauge the level of uptake in the first month of marketing. Our target number of users for Hawke’s Bay is 7,000 by 31st December 2016.

6. This App uses the national Common Alerting Protocol which ensures consistency and interoperability across the various agencies using the App (e.g. MetService and GNS). The App is an additional tool that can be used by the Group to provide for public alerts to be quickly disseminated across a variety of platforms. In Hawke’s Bay this would include fixed and vehicle mounted sirens, radio, social media, telephone “trees” and web pages.

7. The App is very versatile and alerts can be narrowed down to alert mobile devices in a particular suburb through to region wide or national alerts. Alerts can be quickly generated by CDEM staff though a secure web interface.

8. The App is however dependent on a person “opting in” and downloading it onto their device. For this reason a marketing plan has been developed and implemented.

CDEM Contacts App

9. This has been developed with a Hawke’s Bay technology firm as an internal App in which the Group contacts list is installed and updated on an approved person’s phone or tablet. This App was developed in response to increasing difficulties in maintaining common, consistent and up to date contact information that could be accessed across the Group members and partner agencies.

10. The Group contacts database includes over 850 contacts. The App allows users to update their own information and stores the contact information on the user’s phone so it can be used even when there is no cell phone or data coverage. It interfaces with the phone so users can phone, message and email a contact directly from the App.

11. A groups function also allows for specific emails and messages to be sent to a defined group of people (eg CEG).

12. The App also allows us to automatically send a regular reminder to the user to update their information.

13. The roll out of this App has been ongoing over the last month and appears to be well received. Bay of Plenty CDEM Group is also looking at using this App for their own contacts database.

Community Resilience Plans

14. This programme has commenced with a pilot for Bay View/Eskdale/Whirinaki/Tangoio. A group of 20 plus champions from this community are working on this plan. They have named themselves Tangitū which is a traditional name for the area. Planning is underway for community workshops in October to create a Community Resilience Plan. This project is being coordinated by the Group Emergency Management Advisor (Community Resilience) with the support of the Napier and Hastings Emergency Management Officers (EMO).

15. The EMO (Central Hawke’s Bay) has also commenced working with the coastal communities in that district. This will be given priority at the completion of Ex Tangaroa on 31 August. This work will commence with Kairakau and it is intended that this will be completed before the end of the year.

16. A community resilience plan prioritisation matrix for communities within the entire Group area is being developed. From this matrix a Group wide programme will be developed. This is also ongoing work with Council Community Development staff to prioritise further communities in each TLA to work with in the future.

Business Resilience

17. A business resilience working group has been formed with the following:

· Hawke’s Bay Chamber of Commerce (Wayne Walford),

· Hastings District and Napier City Council staff;

· DIA (Sandy Keen),

· Te Puni Kōkiri (Henry Heke),

· Volunteering HB (Renata Lehman),

· Napier and Hastings Business Associations (Zoe Black and Susan McDade)

· Hawke’s Bay CDEM staff.

18. Developing small to medium business resilience is a key objective in the Group Plan and is vital to lessening the impact of emergencies and reducing the time for the community to recover.

19. The working group have adapted and developed easy to use emergency planning resources for Hawke’s Bay businesses. Their focus is initially on the accommodation sector, which has a significant numbers of owner operators.

20. Accommodation has been identified as a key regional sector in a major event. Initially they would support impacted visitors before providing temporary accommodation for displaced persons and out of town emergency services in the response and then out of region personnel in recovery.

21. It is intended to run a pilot workshop for the accommodation sector as part of the Hawke’s Bay Tourism Winter Series looking at initial response and business continuity planning.

22. A key and pleasing aspect of this project is that business is now taking a leadership role in developing the programme with the support of the Group.

Marae Resilience

23. As part of a Resilience Fund project, the Bay of Plenty CDEM Group have developed some new resources for marae emergency planning. These resources were presented to the Kahungunu Taiwhenua and were very well received.

24. It is intended to use these resources to support marae to be community led facilities in an emergency and this is timely with Kahungunu hosting Te Matatini in February next year.

25. A pilot project is being led by Te Puni Kōkiri and the Hastings District Council marae project manager (Wayne Ormsby), working with the Group Emergency Management Advisor (Community Resilience) and the Hastings Emergency Management Officer (EMO). Two wananga are planned for October with seven marae (Waimarama, Omahu, Waipatu, Mihiroa, Matahiwi, Pokemokimoki and Waiohiki). Representatives from Wairoa and Tamatea (Central Hawkes Bay) Taiwhenua have also been invited.

26. It is planned to hold further wananga for the taiwhenua of Wairoa, Whanganui a Orotu (Napier) and Tamatea (Central Hawkes Bay) following this. Te Taiwhenua o Heretaunga plan to run this wananga, with the support of Group staff, with other Heretaunga marae next year.

27. This project has been a significant step forward in terms of cementing Hawke’s Bay CDEM’s relationship with tangata whenua, increasing the resilience of marae communities and providing a community led welfare resource during a response to an emergency.

28. As with the business resilience planning, a key and pleasing aspect of this project is that key people in the Maori community are taking leadership roles in developing the project with the support of the Group.

Recovery

29. In July the Group accepted the resignation of Mr Peter Grant as Group Recovery Manager. Peter is a retiree and has become heavily involved in the Taradale RSA as their president. Peter was the driving force behind completing the Group Recovery Strategy, which is now being used as a template by a number of Groups across New Zealand.

30. Given Peter’s resignation it is timely to revisit how the Group delivers recovery across its members. At the same time a Bill is before Parliament seeking to amend the CDEM Act 2002 to require Groups to appoint a Group Recovery Manager and increasing their powers during an emergency.

31. Options on how to deliver Recovery at both a Group and TLA level will be discussed with CEG. Initial conversations point to agreement that more resources need to be put into this area. Promoting and delivering recovery outcomes before an event will help Hawke’s Bay to recover more quickly and better after an event.

32. One option is to look at Lifelines and Recovery together and provide for a common resource to coordinate and work in both areas. There are however resource implications for this option.

Lifelines

33. The Group have been working closely with the Lifeline Utilities Engineering Group over the last 6 months as they prioritised two projects going forward;

33.1. The Group Fuel Plan, and

33.2. Lifelines restoration priority and dependencies mapping.

34. The fuel plan will be going out to tender shortly seeking an external consultant to work across a large number of stakeholder groups.

35. The mapping project is progressing well. Significant amounts of asset data have now been loaded into the Emergency Management Information System (EMIS).

Hawke’s Bay CDEM Method of Operations

36. Following an initial paper to the Coordinating Executives Group (CEG) in May, changes and amendments have been made to the proposed structure and operations of the CDEM Group. The CEG workshopped a preliminary model in June which has led to the final proposal being tabled at the CEG meeting on 26 August.

37. The new model of operations is based around centralising various response functions to reduce duplication (such as Welfare and PIM); it will also see a reduction in the number of Controllers for the region (details to be confirmed). At the same time increased support is in place for all Councils via a deployable team.

38. Wairoa and Central Hawke’s Bay District Councils will retain small incident management teams to help manage their Lifeline Utilities and implement local CDEM response objectives.

Welfare

39. In the last 6 months there has been a significant amount of work on developing a best practice approach to welfare needs assessment. Being able to quickly understand the needs of an impacted community is key to the delivery of appropriate welfare. This work has addressed particular gaps around complex case management and how we connect people with the services they need. The Group now has a Needs Assessment Plan due to be finalised and a Needs Assessment Training Course which about 50 CDEM volunteers have now completed.

40. To further enhance capability in this area the Group will be exercising frontline needs assessment next year with volunteers to ensure the process will effectively connect people with the services they need. There are also plans to desktop the coordination of rural needs assessment.

41. The ability to capture and analyse needs data in a flexible and quick way is still an issue. This is being looked at by MCDEM. The Group office is also scoping the use of an off the shelf App for data capture.

42. The Group is also working towards a centralised welfare response structure (as part of the wider Hawke’s Bay CDEM Method of Operations review above). This would bring welfare staff from Group and Local Authority level together to deliver a coordinated welfare response. The benefits of this is a more streamlined and flexible welfare response. Welfare Managers at both the local and Group level are supportive of this model and the Group will be trialling this as part of Exercise Tangaroa.

43. As of December 2015 the Group has been working under new national welfare arrangements. These arrangements organise welfare into sub-functions coordinated by different responsible agencies. This has required substantial work on the part of Hawke’s Bay agencies to formalise those coordination responsibilities.

44. Good progress is being made with all of these sub-functions in understanding their responsibilities, developing relationships and plans. Should the Group need to respond to a medium to large scale event, we are in a much better position to coordinate agencies through these arrangements than we were 12 months ago.

45. Focus has now turned to initial response planning and ensuring the initial actions in a response are understood and supported by good procedures. This will help to ensure that in the first few hours of an event, the Group can respond quickly to the needs of the community. This work will include matters such as Civil Defence Centre activations and the provision of emergency relief.

Exercise Tangaroa

46. Planning for Exercise Tangaroa (national tsunami exercise) is now well advanced with the activities at both Group and Local level planned and ready to be delivered. The activities that will take place include:

46.1. Wednesday 31 August 2016.

· Notification and activation exercise across the Group, member councils and some partners.

· GECC Activation Exercise playing in real time with National Crisis Management Centre.

· Table top exercise for all Incident Management Team members at all local authorities.

46.2. Wednesday 14th September.

· Welfare delivery table top exercise.

· Lifelines response table top exercise.

46.3. Wednesday 28th September.

· Recovery Management Workshop.

Hazards Research Update

47. Two key projects in this area are East Coast Life at the Boundary (LAB), and the Hawke’s Bay Liquefaction Review.

48. East Coast LAB is on track for a formal public launch on 22 September at the National Aquarium of NZ with the development of the public education/display room.

49. The Liquefaction Review has taken longer than anticipated. The draft report was received in December 2015. However the peer review raised a number of issues for the authors GNS to consider.

50. This type of research and identification of tools for addressing the risk posed by liquefaction is an emerging area with significant work at a national level by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment in particular. This have been challenging in terms of getting agreement across experts on some of the methodologies used in identifying and assessing liquefaction prone areas.

51. Progress has been made however and we are currently awaiting for the revised report. At this point we will implement the communications plan already developed with the Councils to release this information.

Decision Making Process

52. Council is required to make every decision in accordance with Part 6 Sub-Part 1, of the Local Government Act 2002 (the Act). Staff have assessed the requirements in relation to this item and have concluded that, as this report is for information only and no decision is to be made, the decision making provisions of the Local Government Act 2002 do not apply.

Recommendation

1. That the HB Civil Defence Emergency Management Group Joint Committee receives and notes the “Group Managers General Update” report.

Authored & Approved by:

Ian Macdonald

Group Manager/Controller

Attachment/s

There are no attachments for this report.

[1] Sections 115 & 116 of the Local Electoral Act 2001