Clark may seek staff cuts
Staffing reductions at the Invercargill City Council aren’t off the table if there is no other way to keep the next rates increase below 10%, mayor Nobby Clark says.
The council has already consulted the public on its plans for the next 10 years, including a 9.17% average rates rise for the coming financial year, but the forecast at the time had not allowed for the higher inflation, interest rates and insurance costs that had since occurred as the country found itself in a recession as well as a much-cited cost of living crisis.
From a fresh starting point of 24%, the rise had come back down to about 13% and at a council workshop on Tuesday, finance and assurance manager Patricia Christie said the council could keep a rates increase below 10%.
It was possible, but not without clear direction “and perhaps some significant decisions on your part”, she told councillors.
The live-streamed portion of the workshop focused on the updated information, though potential solutions were discussed in a public-excluded extension afterwards.
No decisions were made but the staff were sent back to prepare a report for May 14.
Clark said later that he had told key staff that if they could not find ways to cut costs or increase revenue – and “not from ratepayers’’ – then personnel costs, including non-replacement options, would need to be turned to. At this stage, “I’m not suggesting we do that’’, he said.
It was to council staff’s credit that they had already done so much work to keep the increase down, Clark said.
But the bottom line was clear: “It isn’t an option to push the rates up.”
One of the issues raised at the workshop was the implications of the council’s commitment to underwrite any shortfall in the campaign to raise external funding of $17 million for Te Unua Museum of Southland project.
Christie said changes to the grants sector, including government grants, meant it could be more difficult to secure this, in which case the council would borrow to make up the difference.
The council had also made some errors calculating that costs for the museum’s operations team kicks in for 2028. Some team members would in fact need to be at work from 2025, building up to the full contingent in 2028.
The harder times also posed potential changes in demand for council services, with expected higher demand for facilities that made no direct charge on users, and lower demand for those which produced revenue by charges.
Councillors at the workshop were also reminded that the consultation process had also led to requests for extra funding that were not, as things stood, budgeted for and, if any were added, then further cuts or income would need to be found to balance that.
The unbudgeted requests included the Multicultural Council seeking funding for a new migrant hub; Te Kupeka Tiaka Taoka Southern Regional Collection Trust seeking help advance the digitisation and online accessibility of the Elmwood collection of vintage photographs; Arts Murihiku and Friends of Anderson House each seeking grants; calls for an end to the council’s low-mow practices on recreation land; an urban play refocus at Queens Park; and a toilet block and drinking fountain at Elizabeth Park.
... But the bottom line was clear: “It isn’t an option to push the rates up.”