Minutes of Corporate and Strategic Committee

1. Welcome/Apologies/Notices

The Chairman welcomed everyone and offered a karakia to open the meeting, after which Pieri Munro acknowledged the loss of three young people in a car accident on the Takapau Plains yesterday.

Resolution

C&S40/20 That the apologies for lateness from councillors Martin Williams and Charles Lambert be accepted.

van Beek/Barker

CARRIED

There was discussion about disorderly behaviour of members of the public in the gallery, and how those incidents are to be managed by the meeting’s Chair in accordance with Standing Orders.

2. Conflict of Interest Declarations

There were no conflicts of interest declared.

3. Confirmation of Minutes of the Corporate and Strategic Committee meeting held on 2 September 2020

To be confirmed at the next meeting.

Follow-ups from Previous Corporate & Strategic Committee Meetings

The item was taken as read, noting that a Health and Safety refresher briefing for councillors is to be scheduled early in the New Year as requested.

C&S41/20

Resolution

That the Corporate and Strategic Committee receives and notes the “Follow-up Items from Previous Meetings”.

Barker/Ormsby

CARRIED

Call for Minor Items not on the Agenda

Recommendations

That the Corporate and Strategic Committee accepts the following “Minor Items Not on the Agenda” for discussion as Item 15

Topic	Raised by
Māori constituencies decision	Peter Eden
Recognised seasonal employment scheme	Peter Eden

Pettigrew Green Arena Car Park

The Chair introduced the item, seeking the Committee’s agreement to hearing from Craig Waterhouse from the Regional Indoor Sport and Events Centre Trust (RISEC) to add context around the Arena expansion project to help inform the discussion today about potential locations for car parking.

Chris Dolley provided an overview of the two site options for car parking development, highlighting:

· Napier City Council also being asked for preferred location for the car park, required to replace parking lost to the Arena expansion

· Hybrid option takes worst aspects of the 2 proposals so is not viable and staff view that it should be discounted

· Regional Council carpark option, over the stopbank, knowingly puts 400 car parks into flood hazard zone when there is an alternative available

Charles Lambert arrived at 9.25am

· EIT owned land ‘swap’ required has been included and weighted in the technical assessment matrix

· HBRC will not contribute to costs for the car park, but will enter into a suitable agreement for the use of the Council-owned land if that is the location chosen however will only enter into any agreement if Council is not liable for loss of any private property in the event of a flood

· Flood forecasting and flood frequency in the area predicted once in every five years

· Ample green space part of the Reserve that could be used, although would mean less green space for community recreation

· Request for cultural assessment of both proposals to be undertaken, and explanation of trade-offs of values

· Craig Waterhouse spoke on behalf of RISEC, the charitable trust that operates the Pettigrew Green Arena in Taradale, advising that the Board is focused on providing car parking as required by resource consent with an environmentally friendly solution as opposed to a ‘concrete car park’ and would prefer to locate the car parking over the stopbank on HBRC managed land

· Long term plan for the stadium is to expand to include another 8 basketball courts at the back on the reserve land proposed as a site for the car parking and longer term plans have not been considered in the current car park proposals.

· EIT has not agreed to release land to accommodate car parking.

· Required to submit resource consent application prior to Christmas to meet requirements for Provincial Growth Fund funding.

C&S42/20

Resolutions

That the Corporate and Strategic Committee:

1. receives and considers the “Pettigrew Green Arena Car Park” staff report.

2. reserves its position on the location of the carpark

3 commits to work with NCC to provide cultural and values assessments to inform Council’s decision making on 16 December 2020.

4. The Corporate and Strategic Committee recommends that Hawke’s Bay Regional Council considers the cultural and values assessment information and presentations from the Regional Indoor Sport and Events Centre Trust and EIT in order to provide direction on a suitable location for the carpark at Pettigrew Green Arena.

Kirton/Barker

CARRIED

2019-20 Compliance Annual Report

James Palmer introduced Katrina Brunton, the new Group Manager Policy and Regulation, who provided a brief overview of her background.

Martin Williams joined the meeting by Zoom at 10am

Nick Zaman and Jack Blunden spoke to the report, highlighting:

· Number of resource consents actively monitored increased to 3044 (of the 8500 on Council’s books), of which 89.7% were fully compliant

· Compliance now structured into Urban and Rural teams

· Drinking water quality is monitored by the Drinking Water Assessors at the District Health Board currently, and this will shift to the Taumata Arowai HBRC has responsibility for monitoring the ‘safety’ of the bores and protection of the source water quality

· Forestry monitoring required under NPS for Plantation Forestry was established and no significant non-compliance found

· Request for quarterly Compliance reporting to this committee, which is currently reported monthly to Council through the Significant Activities report and quarterly through the organisational performance report

· Council can and has prosecuted company directors as well as the company itself for pollution incidents

· Landfill vulnerability assessments are currently carried out using flood and hazards modelling and the level of risk communicated to the Territorial Authority responsible

· Request for workshop with councillors about decisions made under the Enforcement Policy, within statutory boundaries, in order to assess the policy’s effectiveness and understand council officers’ decision making considerations

· National work under way in relation to winter grazing regulations coming into force 31 May 2021 and Farm Environmental Management Plans including communications with landowners

· There are currently capability and capacity issues around 3 waters delivery compliance by TAs across the Country and reflected in non-compliance in Hawke’s Bay

· The Compliance team is working with the Māori Partnerships Team to develop reporting processes for cultural health impact assessment, monitoring and notification of pollution incidents, prosecutions and other enforcement actions to tangata whenua

· Municipal water supply bores not in use must undergo a process of “re-commissioning” including demonstration to HBRC compliance that they meet bore security requirements if they are going to come into use

· Cultural impact assessment engagement with tangata whenua in relation to prosecution or enforcement actions taken in response to pollution incidents varies dependent on the type of incident

· Request for municipal 3 waters compliance to be separated into its own section of the report and to include a structured plan of compliance staff engagement with TAs including meetings and the status of compliance performance indicators to provide councillors with ‘line of sight’

· A visit to CHB is proposed for the new year, for councillors to engage with CHBDC councillors on their Long Term Plan and their 3 waters upgrade programme.

· Councillors need to be congnisant of the clear separation required between politics and prosecution matters.

C&S43/20

Resolutions

1. That the Corporate and Strategic Committee receives and considers the “2019-20 Compliance Annual Report”.

2. The Corporate and Strategic Committee recommends that Hawke’s Bay Regional Council:

2.1. 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 and make decisions on this issue without conferring directly with the community or persons likely to have an interest in the decision.

2.2 Adopts the 2019-20 Compliance Annual Report for publication on the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council website.

Foley/Graham

CARRIED

The meeting adjourned at 11.09am and reconvened at 11.20am

Harbourmaster Functions

James Palmer introduced Captain Martin Moore, who played a video explaining the role of the Harbourmaster and a slide presentation about Rocket Lab as context to the Habourmaster’s role to enforce the launch exclusion zone as well as the ‘safe boating’ education programme and jetski registration.

C&S44/20

Resolution

That the Corporate and Strategic Committee receives and notes the “Harbourmaster Functions” staff report.

van Beek/Lambert

CARRIED

10.

HB Tourism Six-Monthly Update

The Chairman introduced the item and welcomed Hamish Saxton, HB Tourism General Manager, with discussions highlighting:

· Increased domestic market share and lots of events coming up, e.g. Crowded House and Six60 concerts

· Impacts of the lack of international visitors and cruise ship visits over the Summer holiday period are unknown but hopeful that HB will continue to attract good numbers of domestic visitors

· development of a cultural brand for HB and enriching/deepening cultural experiences available to visitors

· Opportunities for Māori tourism operators and businesses to become members of HB Tourism currently free

· Challenges with government using hotels/motels for emergency housing, particularly for visitors needing accommodation for events

· Challenges finding skilled workers, particularly in the hospitality sector, with lack of international visitors on working holidays, e.g. backpackers

Councillor Martin Williams left the meeting at 12.03pm

· Council is currently developing its next Long Term Plan and HB Tourism funding will be considered through that process as part of the economic development rate

C&S45/20

Resolution

That the Corporate and Strategic Committee receives and notes the “HB Tourism Six-monthly Update” report.

Ormsby/Lambert

CARRIED

Report from the 11 November 2020 Finance Audit and Risk Sub-committee Meeting

Councillor Craig Foss introduced the item as Chair of the Sub-committee, highlighting progress made implementing the Risk Roadmap, the report on the review of Council’s response to Covid-19, the updates on Council’s investment returns shared in the annual and quarterly Treasury reports, and the section 17a review report of the Works Group which was considered in Public Excluded session as it contained individuals’ names. Discussions covered:

· the main recommendation from the Works Group s17a review is to bring back-office admin functions into the main Council Corporate Services systems and processes to eliminate duplication.

· Chris Dolley provided an overview of the s17review, available to all councillors on Stellar, including that the Works Group is part of the Asset Management Group reporting to him, and the second main recommendation in relation to the critical incident response role. Works Group capacity to respond to an emergency event with its own resources currently supports continuous response for 3-4 days before issues such as fatigue management become an issue. Optimal resourcing required for response activities will be examined further in 2021.

· The FARS meeting agreed with the associated implementation actions proposed by staff in response to the Works Group s17a review as those are operational actions subject to management decisions rather than strategic.

C&S46/20

Resolution

That the Corporate and Strategic Committee receives and notes the report from the Finance, Audit and Risk Sub-committee.

Foss/Barker

CARRIED

11.

Organisational Performance Report for Period 1 July to 30 September 2020

James Palmer introduced the item and Desiree Cull demonstrated the PowerBI reporting dashboard proposed to replace the current 80 page report, seeking councillors feedback on what metrics they would consider useful to see in this format, to save time and paper (reduce carbon footprint) as well as allowing for councillors to drill down to the detail they are interested in. Discussions traversed:

· Opportunities to tailor dashboards for future specific committee reporting

Martin Williams re-joined the meeting at 12.37pm

· Request for metrics around ‘off sets’ for example by planting x ha of erodible land x tonnes of sediment have been prevented from entering waterways

· Goal is to lessen the burden of reporting on staff while retaining the level of detail required by councillors to maintain oversight and comfort.

C&S47/20

Resolution

That the Corporate and Strategic Committee receives and notes the “Organisational Performance Report for period 1 July to 30 September 2020” staff report.

Foss/Ormsby

CARRIED

12.

2020-21 Quarter 1 (1 July – 30 September 2020) Financial Report

Jessica Ellerm spoke to the item, which was taken as read, highlighting:

· Majority of variances due to inability to phase budgets to align to timing of work delivery

· No significant areas of over spend or unexpected expenditure, and upside to actual investment returns against forecast

· Dividend from Napier Port higher than anticipated and this has potential positive implications on the amount that Council will need to borrow and baseline financials for the LTP.

C&S48/20

Resolution

That the Corporate and Strategic Committee receives and notes the “2020-21 Quarter 1 (1 July – 30 September 2020) Financial Report”.

Foss/Ormsby

CARRIED

14.

Controller and Auditor General 2020 Managing Conflicts of Interest Guidance

Taken as read.

C&S49/20

Resolution

That the Corporate and Strategic Committee receives and notes the “Controller and Auditor General 2020 Managing Conflicts of Interest Guidance” report.

van Beek/Foley

CARRIED

13.

The Regional Council’s Corporate Carbon Footprint

Jessica Ellerm introduced the item, which was taken as read, and Stacey Rakiraki, Corporate Operations Manager, with discussion traversing:

· Additional work around forestry and open spaces carbon calculations and off-set options will need to be commissioned from an external consultant

· Potential to reduce the use of the vehicle fleet as the main contributor to Council’s carbon footprint

· Incentives for staff to use public transport and the promotion of cycling to work.

C&S50/20

Resolution

That the Corporate and Strategic Committee receives and notes the “The Regional Council’s Corporate Carbon Footprint” staff report.

Ormsby/van Beek

CARRIED

The meeting adjourned at 1.11pm and reconvened at 1.40pm

15.

Discussion of Minor Matters Not on the Agenda

Topic

Raised by

Māori constituencies decision – Te Whanganui a Orotu expressed their disappointment at the decision of Council on 18 November to not establish Māori seats and instead hold a poll on whether to do so at the 2022 election, which they do not support.

Peter Eden

Recognised seasonal employment scheme – has had a lot of feedback about lack of opportunities for local (rangatahi) to work in the horticulture industry on an equal playing field to overseas workers and working for minimum wage.

Overseas workers make very big sacrifices, leaving family behind while they are in NZ working and will be paid higher in recognition of their experience. A call has gone out to NZ students, and there are a large number working in HB now, however there is concern around who will do the work when students go back to university/school in February.

Peter Eden

Cr Jerf van Beek

16.

HBRIC Ltd Quarterly Update

C&S51/20

Resolution

That Hawke’s Bay Regional Council excludes the public from this section of the meeting, being Agenda Item 16 HBRIC Ltd Quarterly Update with the general subject of the item to be considered while the public is excluded; the reasons for passing the resolution and the specific grounds under Section 48 (1) of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987 for the passing of this resolution being:

GENERAL SUBJECT OF THE ITEM TO BE CONSIDERED	REASON FOR PASSING THIS RESOLUTION	GROUNDS UNDER SECTION 48(1) FOR THE PASSING OF THE RESOLUTION
HBRIC Ltd Quarterly Update	s7(2)(b)(ii) That the public conduct of this agenda item would be likely to result in the disclosure of information where the withholding of that information is necessary to protect information which otherwise would be likely unreasonably to prejudice the commercial position of the person who supplied or who is the subject of the information.	The Council is specified, in the First Schedule to this Act, as a body to which the Act applies.

Foley/van Beek

CARRIED

The meeting went into public excluded session at 1.53pm and out of public excluded session at 2.17pm

Closure:

There being no further business the Chairman declared the meeting closed at 2.18pm on Wednesday, 2 December 2020.

Signed as a true and correct record.

DATE: ................................................ CHAIRMAN: ...............................................