Taupō District Council will be reviewing its structure and capital works programmes to identify areas where savings can be made

CEO Rob Williams has fronted a series of Council staff meetings held right around the district to inform Council staff that the organisation will need to trim around $8M from its budgets and it is anticipated that around a quarter of this would be from salaries.

He says the district has been fortunate that a number of large construction projects have helped keep Taupō relatively positive during the recession.  However now they have been completed, many businesses are beginning to feel the bite.  “Council is a business like any other and the reality is people are simply not building things in line with the predicted levels of growth we were anticipating three and four years ago.  Additional people are not coming to live in Taupō to boost that residential sector income and the Council is recognising that if we continue to do exactly what we are doing now - we will be looking at a rates increase which will be unacceptable for Council and our ratepayers.”

The process will begin with a call for staff who would like to be considered for voluntary redundancy to come forward before Christmas, with work on the new structure beginning in earnest in the New Year.

Mr Williams says, if council need to save around $2M in salaries, that will equate to a reduction of between 30 and 40 positions.   With no decisions being made yet all staff, including senior management are in the same boat, however it is likely the internal staff at Lake Terrace and Gillespie Plaza will see more change happen, with the outdoors staff less likely to be affected.

“We will wait to see how the voluntary redundancies pan out and will then make some strategic decisions about our overall structure.  If there are projects on our books that are being driven by growth, these may be postponed or even removed.  We will also look at bringing the staff from Gillespie Plaza back to the Lake Terrace site to achieve operational savings,” he said.

Elected members have been updated by the CEO, and the Mayor says “this is a very unfortunate situation, however in this instance the elected members must take a backseat and let management make operational decisions.  I know councils right throughout the country are in a similar position and many businesses are facing the same difficult decisions.”

Mayor Cooper says “as governance, we will continue to focus on supporting economic development to attract new business and employment and keep rates affordable to ensure our district remains a vital and vibrant place.”