Rotorua Aquatic Centre staff proposal on track as council decision looms

Reynold Macpherson, lawyer Helen White, and Rob Popata at the committee meeting in early February. PHOTO/ BEN FRASER

A staff proposal on the management of Rotorua's Aquatic Centre is on track as the deadline for the next council decision looms.

Rotorua Lakes Council will decide whether to "go back to the drawing board and properly consider all management options including the staff proposal and development opportunities for the Aquatic Centre" on February 28, following a committee recommendation earlier in the month.

The decision came after months of controversy over the decision of the council to outsource management to Community Leisure Management (CLM).

Northern Amalgamated Workers Union organiser Robert Popata said the team working on the proposal had been meeting with stakeholders to go over the details of the new document.

Reynold Macpherson, lawyer Helen White, and Rob Popata at the committee meeting in early February. PHOTO/ BEN FRASER

"What we're trying to do is bring these people, these stakeholders together and say 'this our proposal, this is how we see it working'.

"We're doing a lot of the groundwork the councillors who voted for the extension asked us to do."

That included financials, and looking at what programmes the centre offered and what possibilities there were for new programmes.

"Doing the finances was always going to be a challenge, because like CLM, it's the best guesstimate you can do."

Aquatic Centre staff were allowed to compile and present an initial proposal to the Operations and Monitoring Committee after the Amalgamated Workers Union complained to the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) that the process of engagement with the union had been inadequate.

Councillors Kent, Peter Bentley, Merepeka Raukawa-Tait, Tania Tapsell, Raj Kumar, Mark Gould, and committee members Jim Stanton and David Waru all voted in favour of recommending to the council that it go back to the drawing board on management options.

Mayor Steve Chadwick, deputy mayor Dave Donaldson, and councillors Karen Hunt and Trevor Maxwell voted against the motion.

Committee member Bob Martin abstained from the vote.