New figures for Kaikoura Civic Centre show $1.7 million shortfall

Thursday, 17 December 2015

The Kaikoura District Council has been told to come clean to ratepayers about the costs of the new civic centre project.

Kaikoura resident Paul Stemmer told the council at its meeting on Wednesday he was speaking to them on behalf of Kaikoura residents, in particular those on a fixed income.

He had tried previously to get the costs from previous chief executive Stuart Grant but had not been given a satisfactory answer, he said.

'I want to know what the cost is … why are you being so secretive about this?'

Stemmer told the council it was to blame for the community's negative view of the project, saying the secrecy had made everyone hate the building.

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Mayor Winston Gray said lawyers had advised the council not to disclose information on the centre to the public.

Stemmer told him this was very poor advice.

'I don't like how you have handled my money,' he said. 'It's you guys who have let me down.'

Stemmer appealed to the council to be more transparent, and to get the building opened up and shown off to the community as soon as possible.

'That will solve 99 per cent of your problems,' he said.

New figures provided by the council's chief financial officer Sheryl Poulsen on Wednesday showed the council still needed to spend $800,000 to complete its beleaguered civic centre.

Almost $5.87 million had been spent to date on the project. The remaining costs would bring the total up to $6.67m.

The project was approved by the council with a provision of $4.9m in its Long Term Plan. The funding shortfall was identified as $1.77m.

An insurance claim relating to faulty roof panels could see some of this money clawed back, however it needed to be funded until that time.

In her report, Poulsen said time was of the essence and a decision had to be made quickly on how best to fund the shortfall.

The council could reasonably conclude that the community did not want to incur any more long-term debt which would affect rates, which was why she recommended funding the shortfall from special funds, she said.

The forestry fund had already provided $1m towards the project and had a further $1.4m available to use. A short-term loan could be drawn down if forestry funds ran out, followed by revenue from council property sales.

Councillor Darlene Morgan questioned how the cost of completion could equate to so much when the council was assured by the builder there was very little left to do.

Councillor Geoff Harmon said project manager Stuart Chadwick told councillors a year ago there were three weeks left to finish the project.

The council was being told the same thing a year later, Harmon said.

He was critical of the contracts in place which meant the project was dragging on.

'This is the result of not having an end date and penalties in place.'