Emergency Rotorua Lakes Council meeting – but most of the content is behind closed doors

A Rotorua Lakes Council meeting. Photo / File

Rotorua Lakes Council has called an "emergency" meeting this week, but much of its content will be confidential.

The council meeting is set down for Thursday at 10am, and does not feature any staff reports or agenda items in the public part of the meeting.

The meeting will include, as it always does, a time for councillors to raise urgent items not on the agenda.

That part of the meeting also includes a time for councillors to discuss "minor matters" not on the agenda.

However, in the public-excluded part of Thursday's meeting, there are two agenda items.

One states the council will receive an update on the Crankworx festival, and the other item simply states "electricity supply contract".

Under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act, local authorities have the right to discuss issues out of the public gaze for certain statutory reasons, including commercial sensitivity and the privacy of individuals, for example.

The reasons cited for Thursday's discussions to be in a confidential setting, according to the meeting agenda are to "enable any local authority holding the information to carry on, without prejudice or disadvantage, negotiations (including commercial and industrial negotiations)."

Crankworx is to return to Rotorua from November 1 to 7.

In August last year, the council signed off a $1.6m boost for the festival, which brings in an average of $4.31m to the local economy annually.

It had a cumulative impact of $25.8m since it began in the city in 2015.

The $1.6m came in the form of $100,000 for 2020/21, and a commitment of $250,000 each year for the six years following.

The first year's funding would come out of a $29 million fund to stimulate and support the Covid-19 economic recovery, set up as part of the council's 2020/21 annual plan.

Following years' funding would be part of the 2022-2027 Long-Term Plan, and all of the council's ongoing funding would be conditional on Mountain Bike Events (MBE) - which runs Crankworx - continuing to receive funding from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) via its Major Events Fund.

• The council meeting is open to the public and will be held at the council chamber on Thursday, September 30, at 10am. Attendees will be asked to leave the chamber for the public-excluded part of the meeting.