Hastings council to rethink catering spend of more than $116,000

Hastings Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst said there were areas council could look at in terms of catering spend. Photo / File

The Hastings District Council says its large spend on catering in 2017 involved a number of different factors.

The Taxpayers Union reported an annual spend of $116,371.19 on catering in 2017, the highest cost compared to other councils across the Hawke's Bay region.

A total of $50,375.88 was spent on elected members, or close to $1000 a week.

Hastings Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst said at the end of last year the council questioned the spending on catering and asked the chief executive to look into how much it was disbursing on different areas, such as catered lunches, staff functions and work meetings.

"There are definitely some areas we can look at in terms of how much is being spent on catering."

Although the cost of catering came to an astonishing amount, Hazlehurst said the council was responsible for hosting a number of events for visitors and members of the public which involved providing food.

"That sum involves funding across all our community events as well as civic public events and award ceremonies, so it is a lump sum that has been gathered together.

"It's also very important for us to hold events such as public engagement meetings and other community meetings so we can bring our community together and acknowledge the important contribution they make to our whole district."

Hazlehurst said the number of citizenship ceremonies had grown significantly over the past few years and the council was holding them regularly.

"The numbers of which have grown significantly to the point we are now holding them fortnightly rather than monthly to get through the backlog.

"It is important we can still show our appreciation of our people through our hospitality."

Hastings District Councillor Henare O'Keefe was surprised to hear how much the council had spent and said it was a "staggering" amount.

"It is a lot of money, but there's a lot that goes into that in terms of what the council does. I imagine we'll probably address it at the next meeting."

The Hawke's Bay Regional Council was second in line for a big spend on catering costs at $44,955.63.

The Napier City Council came in with the lowest cost of $4285.44.

A council spokesperson said the diminutive amount came down to the council setting down meeting times where catering was not required, but it would cater for other functions or events.

"Catering is offered where meetings are anticipated to last four hours or go for a full day. Under these circumstances it is effective and efficient to provide catering to ensure that meeting timelines can be managed."