Minutes of a meeting of the HB Civil Defence Emergency Management Group Joint Committee
Date: Monday 29 August 2022
Time: 1.30pm
Venue: |
Council Chamber Hawke's Bay Regional Council 159 Dalton Street NAPIER |
Present: Cr R Barker (HBRC) - Chair
Mayor A Walker (CHBDC)
Mayor S Hazlehurst (HDC)
Cr H Flood (WDC delegate)
Cr N Simpson (NCC delegate)
In Attendance: J Palmer – HBRC Chief Executive
I Macdonald – CDEM Group Controller
K Tipuna – WDC Chief Executive
D Tate – CHBDC Chief Executive
N Bickle – HDC Chief Executive
I Wilson – NEMA (virtually)
E Lennan – CDEM
J Whelan – CDEM (virtually)
R McLeod
L Yule – Contextus Solutions
P Martin – HBRC Senior Governance Advisor
The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting including Nigel Simpson as an alternate for NCC and Hine Flood as an alternate for WDC. Kitea Tipuna opened with a karakia.
Resolution
That apologies for Mayors Kirsten Wise and Craig Little be accepted.
Waker/Hazlehurst
CARRIED
2. Conflict of Interest Declarations
There were no conflicts of interest declared.
3. Confirmation of Minutes of the HB Civil Defence Emergency Management Group Joint Committee held on 28 March 2022
Minutes of the HB Civil Defence Emergency Management Group held on Monday, 28 March 2022, a copy having been circulated prior to the meeting, were taken as read and confirmed as a true and correct record. CARRIED |
Action items from previous HB CDEM Group Joint Committee meetings |
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Ian Macdonald introduced this item highlighting: |
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· Building tangata whenua relationships continues. These include Ngati Kahungunu Iwi (NKII) who recently seconded two staff members to the CDEM Group office part time. Group is planning to meet with the recently elected NKII Chair, Bayden Barber · The HBRC Māori Committee will be invited to tour HB CDEM facility in Hastings · Māori representation on HB CDEM Joint Committee will be discussed at the forthcoming meeting of the Matariki Governance Group |
1. That the HB CDEM Joint Committee receives the Action items from previous CDEM Group Joint Committee meetings report. 2. HDC Chief Executive Officer is directed to raise the matter of Māori representation on the HB CDEM Joint Committee at the next meeting of the Matariki Governance Group. CARRIED |
Call for minor items not on the Agenda |
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HB CDEM Group Annual Report 2020-2021 And 2021-2022 |
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Ian Macdonald introduced this item with discussions highlighting: |
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· Report is in draft - financial information still needs to be finalised · The recent flood event in the Wairoa area needs to be included in the 2021- 2022 report |
That the HB CDEM Group Joint Committee: 1. Receives and considers the Hawke's Bay CDEM Group Annual Report 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 report. 2. Agrees that the decisions to be made are not significant under the criteria contained in the Administrating Authority’s adopted Significance and Engagement Policy, and that Joint Committee 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. 3. Agrees that the consultation requirements of the Local Government Act 2002 have been fulfilled. 4. Adopts the Hawke's Bay CDEM Group Annual Report for 2020-2021 and for 2021- 2022 with minor amendments to be made. CARRIED |
Reviewed Group Operational Framework (Concept of Operations) |
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Lawrence Yule, Ross McLeod and Edaan Lennan introduced this item highlighting: |
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· Gave a brief history of the Strengthening CDEM Arrangements in HB project. The Group Operational Framework review is a part of this wider strengthening project · There is a high level of community expectation that emergency events will be well managed- including public updates/reporting. Elected members want to be involved in providing information to their communities · The intention of the Group Operational Framework project is to make it clear/reset the roles and responsibilities of elected Council members during an emergency event. · Key matters identified: · Need to better support political leaders during an event to allow them to be involved in providing timely and accurate information to their communities · Need to establish roles and responsibilities for local Government and support other agencies when undertaking key roles such as welfare · Inter-agency coordination and communication needs to be improved · Integration with National Emergency management systems is required · Key principles are - responsiveness, flexibility, unity of effort, accountability and responsibility · Looking to set out how leadership works in an emergency event – who does what · Emergency event management should be regionally coordinated, locally delivered, community centred and collectively led · Implementation issues identified include the need for more/ongoing staff training to occur and potentially more resourcing for emergency operation centres · A ‘team approach’ is suggested whereby all Mayors and Council Chief Executives support each other no matter where an event is occurring. Events can spread from one area to another, or even across the whole region and beyond · Welfare response should largely be established and managed through the Council involved with direction/support from GECC and other Councils. This places an onus on Council staff to actively participate during an event, rather than relying on the Group to provide most of the operational staffing requirements · FENZ and Police have high tech communication tools which they tend to use internally - better integration/sharing of these tools would benefit everyone · FENZ, in particular, has a strong volunteer base. This model could be utilised by Group who have some volunteers at present; generally involved in the communication area · The Group has a Strategic Volunteering Review underway looking at how volunteers can be recruited, trained, managed, equipped and where they fit in with Council staff and structures and with other agencies such as FENZ · During an event, the Group Controller directs partner agencies to carry out particular tasks; how these are carried out is up to those agencies, including whether they choose to use volunteers to do so · It may be that FENZ and the Police with their specialist staff and volunteers, undertake the truly dangerous/lifesaving activities in an emergency. Councils and partner agencies including Iwi could use their staff and volunteers to undertake community welfare and support activities, with overall leadership coming from CDEM Joint Committee · There should be regular training exercises involving all Council leaders and Group staff. Council staff need to be fully aware that Civil Defence is an integral part of their employment · Civil Defence needs to be ‘ahead of events’ rather than being reactive to them · Due to locations WDC and CHBDC may not be as tightly connected to the CDEM Group as HDC/NCC/HBRC Councils are. This is due to their relatively small scale, rural location/separation and the strong community connectedness in those areas · Collective/peer support from Joint Committee members during any emergency event evaluation phase would be valuable. CDEM Joint Committee should be ‘stood up’ if/when an emergency event is unfolding. The CDEM Chair would initiate this step in conjunction with Group Controller · The Concept of Operations presented was endorsed without modification |
That Hawke’s Bay CDEM Group Joint Committee: 1. Receives and considers the Reviewed Operational Framework (Concept of Operations) staff report. 2. Approves the Hawke’s Bay CDEM Group Concept of Operations (with any modifications identified) as attached to this paper. 3. Agrees that the decisions to be made are not significant under the criteria contained in Administrating Authority’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. CARRIED |
Amendments to the Hawke's Bay CDEM Group Plan: Controller appointments |
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Ian Macdonald introduced this item which was taken as read. |
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· This report and its recommendations should also include Steve Gregory from NCC who has been through the required processes |
That the Hawke’s Bay CDEM Group Joint Committee: 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 the Committee 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 Hawke’s Bay CDEM Group Joint Committee resolves to make minor amendments to Appendix 5: Key Appointments of the Hawke’s Bay CDEM Group Plan pursuant to section 57 of the Civil Defence Emergency Management Act 2002, and make appointments and changes to the roles of Local Controller as follows: 2.1. Add the following to the Local Controller Hawke’s Bay CDEM Group list: 2.1.1. Darren de Klerk 2.1.2. Pip Connolly 2.1.3. Rachel Bailey 2.1.4 Edaan Lennan 2.1.5 Steve Gregory 2.2. Remove the following from the Local Controller Hawke’s Bay CDEM Group list: 2.2.1. Doug Tait 2.2.2. Antionette Campbell. CARRIED |
Progress Report Strengthening CDEM in HB - Implementation report |
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Ian Macdonald introduced this item highlighting: |
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· Progress is generally going well although some aspects have been held up through resourcing issues · Projects reported through updates on this programme are now being rolled into the Group Work Programme and will be reported there in future · There are currently no vacancies at CDEM Group - staffing levels are full, the first time in two years or more |
That the Joint Committee receives and notes the Progress Report Strengthening CDEM in Hawke's Bay - Implementation report staff report. CARRIED |
CDEM Arrangements during the election period and post-election inductions |
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Ian Macdonald introduced this item highlighting: |
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· Councillors who have already been elected unopposed are not able to act under legislation until they been through the inauguration/swearing in process · Chair endorsed Mayor Alex Walker to be the Acting Chair in the interim period · There will be an induction meeting for the incoming Joint Committee. All elected members across HB also need to be informed about Civil Defence obligations. An all-encompassing training/induction meeting would be ideal. |
That the Joint Committee notes and receives the report CDEM Arrangements During the Election Period and Post-Election Inductions. CARRIED |
Group Work Programme 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 |
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Ian Macdonald introduced this item highlighting: |
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· The work programme now incorporates projects addressing the Strengthening CDEM in HB programme. It also shows the need for further Group staff resourcing; this aspect will need to be co-ordinated with all Councils’ LTP processes · Future staff resources could include rural and urban specialists helping to educate and connect with specific communities - through the community engagement workstream · Marae involvement with Civil Defence is dependent on compliance issues, particularly around safe drinking water |
That the HB CDEM Group Joint Committee receives and notes the Group Work Programme for 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 staff report. CARRIED |
NEMA update report |
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Ian Wilson introduced this item which was taken as read. Discussions included: |
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· Foot and Mouth disease outbreak in Indonesia - the situation is being closely monitored through MPI. If there was an outbreak, MPI would like to use Group facilities around the country · Thanks to HB CDEM Group for recently providing staff to assist with emergencies in other parts of the country |
That the HB CDEM Joint Committee receives and notes the NEMA update report. CARRIED |
General business |
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During the meeting it was recognised that the Chair will be retiring from the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council soon and therefore from this Joint Committee. The Chair’s contribution to the Committee was acknowledged and members gave a vote of thanks to Rick Barker for his service. |
That the HB Civil Defence Emergency Management Group Joint Committee acknowledges Cr Rick Barker for his contribution to Civil Defence, and gives him a vote of thanks for his service to the Joint Committee. CARRIED |
Closure:
There being no further business the Chair declared the meeting closed at 3.00pm on Monday, 29 August 2022. Kitea Tipuna closed the meeting with a karakia.
Signed as a true and correct record.
DATE: ................................................ CHAIRMAN: ...............................................