Coast Council Defends Growth In Staff Numbers In Heated Meeting

Wednesday, 5 February 2025, 8:27 pm
Article: Lois Williams - Local Democracy Reporter

The West Coast Regional Council is defending its latest increase in staff numbers - saying it now needs to hire fewer consultants.

The council employs the equivalent of about 92 full-time staff, group manager Jo Field told the first council meeting of the year, on Tuesday.

She was responding to a question from councillor Allan Birchfield who has challenged the staff and consultant numbers.

Birchfield, who was deposed as council chair two years ago, has previously accused the council of growing a "huge bureaucracy" that ratepayers could not afford.

The 92 FTE figure is a rise of about 15 per cent on April last year when the council said it had nearly 80 staff on its books.

But deputy chair Peter Ewen said the council had taken on more staff to "get rid of the consultants".

Chief executive Darryl Lew said he did not have the exact numbers to hand but would check and provide Birchfield with the answer.

"I can confirm that the number of consultants employed by the council has steadily declined to a very small number over the last six months as staff numbers grew. This is … what council has asked me to do."

The council set budgets and desired outcomes for West Coast communities through its long term and annual plans, Lew said.

"It's highly normal that it's up to the chief executive and senior leadership team to use those budgets and not go beyond them, to achieve the outcomes that you've set - and that will be through a dynamic mix of staff and consultants."

A case in point was the Westport flood protection scheme, where consultants were contracted to do the geotechnical analysis of the foundations along the banks of the Buller, Lew said.

"I would never employ geotech engineers on this council - it is right and proper that we employ consultants for that. So I just want to restate my position as chief executive.

"You give me budgets, you give me what you want to achieve, and it's up to me to find the right mix of full time, part-time, fixed-term staff and consultants to achieve those outcomes for our communities.

"I hope that's clear to the councillors."

Ewen said that given the WCRC was the smallest regional council in country, with some of largest projects on its books, it was punching above its weight.

"Some of this government funding is tagged for consultants so that Wellington can have confidence in the model and confidence in this council to handle it."

Council chair Peter Haddock said the council also needed the services of surveyors, for the Buller and other projects, and it would not make sense to take them on as staff.

"This was all thrashed out pretty clearly in our LTP, in a series of very long council workshops by six of our councillors who turned up to work through it."

Birchfield had chosen not to attend the workshops, he noted.

The comment provoked a terse exchange between the chair and Mr Birchfield over which meetings he had attended, which ones he was entitled to take part in, and which ones he intended to show up for in future.

"In my 17 years of being on councils, you would be the most difficult person I ever had to work with," said a clearly exasperated Mr Haddock."

"And you would be the worst chair I have ever had to work with," said Birchfield in response.

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