Hawke’s Bay councillors back staff as confusion over recovery bills continues

Waipawa flooded after Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo / Bryce Fergusson

By Kate Green of RNZ

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council councillors have backed council staff for their decisive decision-making during Cyclone Gabrielle, despite confusion over the bill being worsened by bad record-keeping.

The regional council is still at odds with the National Emergency Management Agency (Nema) over who foots $56 million of its projected $885m bill, with the reimbursement process made more complicated by what council documents called “poorly-disciplined” record-keeping.

But councillors said yesterday the ad-hoc approach was justified.

When the cyclone damaged power, internet and cellular networks along the East Coast, communications were patchy for days and council staff had to hand-write purchase orders to keep track of spending.

Emergency management guidelines say the Government - through Nema - should pay 100 per cent of welfare response costs, 60 per cent of other response costs - anything that would “reduce immediate danger to human life” - and 60 per cent of recovery costs such as repairing infrastructure.

Nema had so far approved 41 per cent of the amount requested by the council. If it doesn’t agree to fund the rest, ratepayers will have to pay for the shortfall.

Councillor Sophie Siers said staff were doing their best under the circumstances.

“All our CDEM [civil defence emergency management] staff were out in the field and they were having to make decisions, sometimes while standing in a river that was climbing,” she said.

“For them to, without phones or communications, spend two days getting a purchase order number to go and find the bit of paper, to bring it, to get it signed off, is absurd.”

Generators were a particular point of contention, with the council unable to say for certain where every generator was allocated and how long for, thanks to patchy records.

Nema had already declined some costs; in particular, some associated with setting up generators for rest homes and pharmacies.

According to the agenda for Wednesday’s meeting: “Potentially, with hindsight, the GECC [Group Emergency Co-ordination Centre] should not have provided these services, but the GECC staff making the decisions at this time were focused on the welfare and medical needs of the citizens of Hawke’s Bay rather than who was subsequently going to be paying these costs”.

Councillor Xan Harding said it was inevitable the council would pay for some of it.

“This is never going to be a situation where we get 100 per cent back - structurally, we know that we are going to be on the line for 40 per cent at least for some things,” Harding said.

“There’s no free lunch in an emergency.”

Councillor Jock Mackintosh agreed, likening the days after the cyclone to wartime.

“I think the answer to this lies in reasonable goodwill from the parties involved,” he said.

Chairwoman Hinewai Ormsby said she was grateful council staff acted so decisively during the emergency, and the potential cost to ratepayers had already been factored into the proposed rates increases.

She said she hoped to have more clarity when the regional council met again on June 28.