What Taupo Council ticks up on credit
The Taupo District Council credit card was swiped through the tills of some glitzy, $400-plus-a-night hotels last year.
Credit card statements, released to Taupo Times under the Official Information Act, show more than $37,000 worth of charges to hotel rooms, and taxis to and from hotels, last year.
Some of the night spots visited by council staff included: The Rendevous Hotel ($418), The Brothers Hotel Dunedin ($1221), Sofitel Auckland ($310), Scenic Hotel Dunedin ($828), Auckland Oaks ($433), Hotel Ibis ($435) and a $1305 bill for a delegation to hand over former chief executive Rob Williams to his new position at Thames Coromandel District Council.
Two large charges include a stay at the Sofitel Luxury Hotel in Shanghai for $2932, and Suzhou Marriott Hotel which saw a $5335 bill during a mayoral delegation last year.
Getting to and from hotels set ratepayers back more than $13,000 in flights for councillors and council staff for the calender year and $850 for a Koru Club membership for chief executive Gareth Green despite Taupo airport not having a Koru Club service.
Also featuring on the statements was more than $130,500 worth of road user charges for council owned diesel vehicles run by council and close to $5600 relating to the purchase of stock images.
Most of the image charges pertain to Shutterstock.com, a website selling image copyright to groups for their promotional purposes.
While hotels may be a big spend, there appears to be next to no wining and dining. Records show approximately $3200 was spent in charges relating to food and entertainment on credit card statements for the entire year.
A $272 dinner at the Brantry Restaurant for senior staff and foreign investors was the only major expense with the majority of expenses pertaining to lunch meetings or the occasional coffee chat.
Data was received under the Official Information Act, but required manual calculation of all budget lines to obtain totals.
Cents were removed from calculations and care has been taken to include all items pertaining to expenses, but it is possible some were missed.
The council was unavailable for comment on Friday or Monday morning.