Disconnect over risk management, expectations highlighted

A review of the events leading to the issuance of Nelson’s Civic House earthquakeprone building (EPB) notice found that Nelson City Council officers’ decisions and actions were ‘‘aligned with the risk management framework’’.

The internal review of the events concluded that while officers acted in accordance with risk management processes, it was clear that ‘‘the expectations of elected members were not met’’.

An EPB notice issued on April 1 raised problems with the bracing to the tower block roof, which was determined to be high risk, and the ceiling tiles in various parts of Civic House not meeting the 34 per cent threshold of the New Building Standard (NBS). Councillors only found out about the earthquake-prone designation prior to a scheduled briefing for them on the Civic House Refurbishment Project held on May 12, 2022, six weeks after the notice was issued.

On the same day, council chief executive Pat Dougherty made the decision to vacate staff from the building’s sixth floor due to the risk posed by the bracing on the tower block roof.

Nelson mayor Rachel Reese at the time questioned the time frame in which the council was made aware of the notices and accompanying risks.

The risk from the roof structure was known to council officers in January 2022. The review’s authors indicated that it was likely officers initially assumed that the risk identified with the roof structure was similar to the already known ceiling tile risk: a medium risk.

Under the council’s risk criteria, a medium-rated risk does not require elected members to be notified.

But despite officers acting in accordance with their delegated authorities, report co-author and the council’s business manager improvement, Arlene Akhlaq, said improvements could be made.

‘‘There’s some questions to be asked about whether more robust application of risk management practice, and more dependency on those risk management processes might have led to a different outcome.’’

She said stakeholders in Civic House, such as the council, should be brought into discussions about risk earlier in the management process.

Dougherty added that a reshuffling of workloads and delegations, and staff turnover, probably contributed to some internal confusion as to which groups handled the issues of Civic House’s earthquake risks.

‘‘I think there was a genuine feeling that we had kept councillors informed on this, but it’s when you step back and look at it, there was no coherent reporting. It was coming in bits and pieces through different parts of the council at different times.’’

Akhlaq will provide detailed and operational recommendations to Dougherty by the end of September. These will be brought before the audit, risk and finance subcommittee.