Disagreement on funding for museum and other key Motueka assets

July 20th, 2011
[by David Armstrong]

Disagreement has arisen between Community Board chairman David Ogilvie and TDC's Community Services Manager Lloyd Kennedy over how Reserves funding is used to fund Motueka Museum repairs and maintenance, and not the Council's Museum Facilities Rate.

David says that because Motueka (and all other Tasman) ratepayers pay into the Museum Facilities Rate, but restoration work on the local museum is not being funded from that rate and instead comes from Motueka's Reserves funds, which are then reducing the amounts available for other reserves fund projects in Motueka Ward.

The issue arose at the June meeting of the Community Board when Lloyd presented a report from TDC's Community Services department on a recommended budget for Motueka's Reserves money for the coming year.

Part of accepting his recommendation included agreeing that $25,000 be spent to help initial museum waterproofing work. Because of his disagreement over the non-use of the Council's Museum Facilities Rate funds for this purpose, David had to register a dissenting vote to the whole recommendation, which was passed by the Board as a whole.

At the Board's July meeting last week, David tabled a report seeking to explain his viewpoint on aspects of the Reserves (DILs) funding, including other similar items around the Library Feasibility Study and the Sports Park Motueka carpark.

"Tasman District ratepayers are to pay $56.06 for the Museum Facilities Rate," he wrote in his report, which had been sent to the TDC. "This raises over $1 million. Nelson City probably raises a similar amount, for a total exceeding $2 million. The District’s museums in Murchison, Golden Bay and Motueka receive less than $100,000. The Motueka Museum receives $37,500 + GST, which is 15.3% of the $280,000 which the Motueka Ward itself provides.

"Sensibly, the repair and maintenance of the Museum building (roof and exterior) should come from the Museum Facilities Rate – it does not! Council received a report (15 April 2011) that the restoration could cost $150,000 and that money be allocated accordingly in the 2011 – 2012 Annual Plan. The current estimate for the project is $73,812, to which has been added a contingency factor raising the cost to $100,000.

Motueka (and District) ratepayers are paying a Museum Facilities Rate, which does not include its District Museum facilities. Apart from the rate, Council and the Museum have a contract. The lease between the Tasman District Council and the Motueka Museum states: 'The building exterior ... to be the total responsibility of the Tasman District Council and to include all future maintenance, repair ...'.

"The implication is that the District Council will fund (through general rate, if not the museum rate) any repairs. Currently this happens for mainly maintenance jobs ... It does not seem contractually fair or appropriate for the Motueka Museum restoration project to be funded out of the Reserves Development Levies. The museum frontage is a reserve, but not the Museum building."

The Community Services Manager, Lloyd Kennedy, added into David's report (an action which annoyed David) his advice that "the building is not the Museum but the activity inside the building. The Museum Rate has been set based on a tight budget and unless the rate was increased there is no spare funds in this account."

On the Library Feasibility Study for which $20,000 has been budgeted, David wrote: "Similar surveys in Richmond (for the extension of the District Library ) and in Golden Bay (for construction of their new library) have been funded from the District’s general rate. The same method should apply for the proposed extension (or relocation) for the Motueka Library."

Lloyd also added into the report: "The Community Services Manager [ie, Lloyd] has advised that Reserve Financial Contributions are used for Library Books and work around libraries such as the former drive through area of the Richmond library.

Finally, David Ogilvie commented on the $103,257 allocated for the carpark for Sports Park. "The proposed carpark is to service the Sportspark facility and the 'planned-for' swimming pool," he wrote. "Both facilities are funded by the District Facilities Rate.

"The standard arrangement, as applied to comparable facilities at Upper Moutere, Richmond Aquatic Centre, Motueka Recreation Centre, is that the car parking cost come from the District Facilities Rate. This is not happening for Motueka and the reasons supplied ('a condition of the resource consent') don’t indicate why the policy has not been followed."

Lloyd Kennedy added in: "There is no policy regarding carparks and facilities and in fact the only one of those mentioned that was funded from the Facilities Rate was the Moutere Hills Centre. The Richmond Pool received $2.1m of Reserve Financial Contributions and only $2.0m from the Facilities Rate and the Recreation Centre carpark is not being funded from the Facilities Rate."

David concluded that in his opinion, "these three situations reflect a concerning inconsistency by the Council in setting these rates and policies. $145,000 in total (and likely to increase to over $200,000) is being denied for other reserves fund projects in Motueka Ward, which meet the appropriate criteria."

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