Regional council loan revealed
Horizons Regional Council’s decision to take out a loan of up to $15 million – something its chief executive says was always planned for – was set to stay secret if councillors had not spoken up.
The council voted this week to give chief executive Michael Mccartney authority to draw down the loan. The decision was initially going to be made in the public-excluded section of the meeting, but was done in public after councillor Jono Naylor objected. He has noticed a trend of financial matters being discussed in the public-excluded sections of meetings since he was voted on to the council in 2018.
‘‘It is something that concerned me ... That we tend to do all our financial stuff behind closed doors.’’
Mccartney said he could see no reason for it to stay publicexcluded, which drew questioning from councillor Emma Clarke. ‘‘If that is the view so quick off the bat, why did it go into [public-excluded] anyway? Because it involves money?’’
Council chairwoman Rachel Keedwell said the same opinion had been given by numerous people, so it would be good to check the process behind the public exclusion of items.
Councillors John Turkington, Bruce Gordon and Weston Kirton voted to keep the item in publicexclusion, while Wiremu Te Awe Awe was absent from the meeting. Many councillors seemed shocked by the need to take the loan, but Mccartney told Stuff after the meeting it was always planned for.
Many river works schemes had been drawing loans from Horizons’ general reserve, which had $15m in it about six years ago, Mccartney said.
The loans collected interest, as scheme works are paid on an 80-20 split between those in the scheme and all ratepayers.
The reserve was at $3.4m at the end of the past financial year, but a large amount of scheme work, including the impending conclusion of the Lower Manawatu¯ Scheme rural upgrade project, was in the pipeline and needed paying for, he said.
The loan would be taken from the Local Government Funding Agency, which offered a better interest rate than banks despite extremely low interest rates.
Using loans and the general reserve helped keep rates down in the short term and spread the cost of projects across the lives of those who benefit, he said.