Extraordinary Finance
Committee – 29 March 2017 – Open Agenda
1. Review of Fees & Charges 2017/18
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Type of Report:
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Operational
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Legal Reference:
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Local Government Act 2002
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Reporting Officer/s & Unit:
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Adele Henderson, Director Corporate Services
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1.1 Purpose
of Report
To
consider Fees and Charges proposed for the year commencing 1 July 2017.
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Officer’s Recommendation
That the proposed Schedule of Fees and Charges for 2017/18 be
adopted and form part of the supporting information for the 2017/18 Annual
Plan.
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MAYOR’S
RECOMMENDATION
That the
Council resolve
that the officer’s recommendation be adopted.
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1.2 Background Summary
The proposed Schedule of Fees and
Charges (shown at Attachment A) is to take effect from 1 July 2017.
The schedule has been updated to
incorporate changes to the existing scale of fees and charges, and any new
charges that have been approved by Council during 2016/17.
Where appropriate, all charges have been
rounded to the nearest 10 cents or whole dollar in accordance with Council Policy.
11.3 Issues
Generally fees and charges have been
increased by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) December 2016 of 1.4% and the
Subdivision and Urban Growth fees and charges by Producer Price Index (PPI) of
1.7% as at December 2016.
Charges were also reviewed to reflect
actual cost movement. In these cases there are variances, both increases
and decreases, from the CPI and PPI adjustments applied.
The significant variances and the
reasons for these are stated below:
·
Fees associated with
the sale of a dog are proposed to increase from $65 to $210, in order to
recover the costs associated with the additional services of vet check,
desexing, registration as well as microchipping.
·
Aquarium fees and
charges have increased by 5% across the board, with the exception of fees for
school parties, group discounts and sleep-overs which have remained
unchanged. It should be noted that charges at the Aquarium had not been
adjusted in the last five years.
·
Following the
redevelopment of the Napier Conference Centre, all fees and charges have been
reviewed to reflect the new additional space and likely use of the rooms. All
Community rates have been repriced and are now set at a 40% discount of
relevant corporate rate.
·
MTG fees have been
reviewed to bring venue hire fees in line with the Napier Conference Centre, to
provide community group discounts in line with other areas of Council, and to
increase student numbers in the education programmes.
·
Charges for official
information requests have been updated to reflect the Ministry of Justice Charging
Guidelines.
Financial contributions have not been
indexed as per the guidelines in the District Plan and therefore remain
unchanged from 2016/17. It is proposed that these will be reviewed as part of
the Long Term Plan process.
1.4 Attachments
a Draft Fees and Charges 2017/18 ⇩
Extraordinary Finance Committee – 29 March 2017 – Open Agenda
2. Annual Plan 2017/18
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Type of Report:
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Legal and Operational
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Legal Reference:
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Local Government (Rating) Act 2002
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Document ID:
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346114
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Reporting Officer/s & Unit:
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Adele Henderson, Director Corporate Services
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2.1 Purpose
of Report
The
Annual Plan is prepared and adopted as part of the requirements from Section 95
of the Local Government Act. The purpose of this report is to
propose not to consult due to there being no significant or material variances
to the Long Term Plan 2015-25 for year 3.
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Officer’s
Recommendation
a. That
Napier City Council recognise the changes in Local Government Act 2002
consultation requirements, and do not consult on the Annual Plan 2017/18 as
there are no significant or material changes to those presented in the Long
Term Plan 2015-25;
b. That
Council increase the funding for Community Grants by $50,000 for 2017/18, to
be funded from rates;
c. That
Council provide a Community Projects fund of $200,000, to be funded from
rates, in the Draft Annual Plan 2017/18;
d. That
Council inform the public and make the Draft Annual Plan 2017/18 available on
the Council website;
e. That
Council approve the proposed average rate increase of 3.9% (noting that this
is lower than the Long Term Plan proposed increased for 2017/18 of 5.0%); and
f. That
Council seek feedback on the proposed Fees and Charges for the Council
activities for 2017/18 on the Council website by 30th April 2017.
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CHAIRPERSON’S
RECOMMENDATION
That the
Council resolve
that the officer’s recommendation be adopted.
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2.2 Background Summary
The
Annual Plan is prepared and adopted as part of the requirements from Section 95
of the Local Government Act. Council is required to produce an
Annual Plan each year, with the exception of the years when the Long Term Plan
(LTP) is to be produced (triennially). The Annual Plan 2017/18 (shown at
Attachment A) represents year 3 of the 2015-25 LTP.
Section
95 Subsection (2) does not apply if the proposed Annual Plan does not include
significant or material differences from the content of the LTP for the
financial year to which the proposed Annual Plan relates.
The
Act also requires that an Annual Plan be adopted before the commencement of the
year to which it relates. This means that the 2017/18 Annual Plan must be
adopted on or before 30 June 2017.
Although
not required to consult on this Plan, there is an option for Council to do so.
This would result in significant resources being required for community
engagement events, preparing a consultation document, collating and
summarising, considering and responding to submissions.
2.3 Issues
None
2.4 Significance and Consultation
Local Government Act 2002 (amendment of 2014)
As
Napier City Council have not identified any significant or material differences
between the proposal Annual Plan and the content of the LTP for the financial
year to which the Annual Plan relates, it is recommended that the formal
consultation document and consultation process are not required this
year. This recommendation is a result of the amendment to the Local
Government Act in 2014.
The
criteria for Significance and the engagement spectrum is contained in the
Council’s Significance and Engagement Policy (available on the
Council website).
For
the purposes of the Annual Plan 2017/18 the following consultation is
recommended:
Draft
Annual Plan Inform
Fees
and Charges Seek
the Community’s view
Information
on the updated Fees and Charges has been provided in a separate report to this
meeting. The proposed Fees and Charges Schedule for 2017/18 will be
available on the Council website, Council offices and Libraries and we will be
seeking community feedback on these. The feedback will be due by 30th
April 2017.
The
Draft Annual Plan will be available on the Council website.
Funding Grants
To
address funding requests normally received through the Annual Plan, Council is
proposing the following:
Community Development Grants
It
is recommended that Council increase the fund by $50K to provide additional
funding within the current grant process to accommodate requests normally
received through Annual Plan process. This would allow for grant requests
to be received throughout the year rather than the Annual Plan timing only.
The
fund information sheet is shown at Attachment B.
Council Project Grants
Larger
scale community projects are normally identified as part of the LTP process;
however, from time to time there are projects that the community would like to
progress earlier. A budget of $200K is to be provided for Council to
accommodate requests during the year, which would be considered on a case by
case basis.
The
fund would consider projects with a minimum value of $20K, with the initial
assessment undertaken by Community Development, and then brought to Council for
their consideration, as and when requests arise. A template would be
provided to groups interested in making an application, allowing them to
provide a developed proposal with adequate information for consistent
decision-making. Proposals would be able to be made throughout the year.
Council
may wish to identify three or four priority areas for funding purposes.
Annual Plan 2017/18
Movements
There
are some movements in the Annual Plan 2017/18, which are listed below for
information, although not considered ‘significant or material
changes’ under the Act:
·
Increase in Event
funding $140,000
(funded from Reserves)
·
McLean Park Returf $849,000
(funded from rates
and planned for 2018/19, bought forward to 17/18 - in LTP)
·
i-Site
redevelopment $420,000 (funded from rates and
planned for 2017/18 moved to 2018/19 - in LTP)
·
Drain improvements $280,000
(funded from rates and planned for 2017/18 moved to 2018/19 - in LTP)
Capital Projects
Capital Projects contained in the LTP
2015-25 that are still being developed and yet to be finalised are:
Civic Building upgrade
In Year 3 of the LTP 2015-25 Council
included funding to progress the upgrade of the Civic Building. This
project is still being scoped, meaning there is considerable uncertainty about
the exact funding needed and its timing.
Given the range of possibilities, and
the probability that the project parameters would trigger threshold levels
under the Significance and Engagement Policy at this time, it is envisaged that
any major changes would be considered in the LTP consultation in 2018-28.
Until then, funding currently in Year 3
of the LTP will be retained in the Annual Plan.
Multi-use Sports Facility
The Detailed Business Case has been
developed for the Multi-use Sports Facility. A gateway process was
implemented for this project, where Council could consider at each stage
whether to continue with the project or not. Council has the ability to
remove any item within the Plan if it considers the project does not deliver
value to the community.
To date: options have been considered,
design and pricing of the best option, location and siting, usage, delivery
model has been undertaken, as well as processing of the Resource consent, a
requirement to progress for external funding. The Business Case has
determined the best option to have an estimated cost of $22.7m (funded 1/3 by
Council, 1/3 by Government and 1/3 through Sponsorship/Grants).
Given both the range of possibilities
for this project that may need to be considered by Council, and the probability
that the project parameters would trigger threshold levels under the
Significance and Engagement Policy, it is envisaged that any major changes
would be considered in the LTP consultation in 2018-28 or an LTP Amendment.
Annual Plan 2017/18 Exclusions
The following projects have not been
considered in the Annual Plan 2017/18 and are being considered for Consultation
as part of the LTP 2018-28:
1. Swimming Pool –
business case in development
2. Sale of Leasehold Land
3. McLean Park stand upgrade
4. Environmental sustainability
projects
2.5 Implications
Financial
For
2017/18 the proposed rate increase is 3.9%. This is lower than the
proposed rates increase in the Long Term Plan of 5.0%.
Risk
As
the legislation requirements regarding consultation changed in 2014, this is
the first year Napier City Council has not undertaken consultation on its
Annual Plan. There may be some public perception risk that we are not
providing a forum for our community to discuss their requests for income or
their concerns with us. This risk has been mitigated with the proposal
for Community projects and Community Grants and funding request proposal.
Engagement Plan
If
Council decides not to consult on the Annual Plan, it will be important to
communicate this with the community.
Key
messages are:
·
Council are staying
on the path set in the LTP 2015-25 that was previously consulted on.
·
As there are no
significant or material changes from the LTP we will not be re-consulting for
the Annual Plan.
·
We have increased
our Community Development Grant fund to accommodate requests normally
received through the Annual Plan process
·
We have provided a
Council Project fund ($200K) for other requests, that will take applications
during the year.
·
We will be focusing
on early community engagement for the LTP 2018-28.
2.6 Options
The
options available to Council are as follows:
a. Consult on the Annual Plan 2017/18
Although
there are no apparent issues to consult on that relate to the Annual Plan
2017/18, Council may opt to voluntarily consult.
The
advantages of this option include a perception that Council intend to take
community views into account and make changes to the Annual Plan 2017/18 based
on community feedback.
The
disadvantages of this option are the significant amount of resources required
to hold a consultation, which will limit the ability to achieve the proposed
community pre-engagement for the LTP 2018-28.
b. Not to consult on the Annual Plan
2017/18
Council
may opt not to consult on the Annual Plan as there is no specific issues to
consult or material or significant departures from year 3 of the Long Term Plan
2015-25, and therefore Consultation is not required under legislation
2.7 Attachments
a Draft Annual Plan 2017/18 (Under Separate Cover) ⇨
b Community Grant Fund Information Sheet ⇩
NAPIER
CITY COUNCIL
