Future resilience is top of mind for Hamilton City Council as it tackles the Covid-19 pandemic.
And business people and residents can play their part as the council looks for ideas and invites engagement and feedback.
Mayor Paula Southgate said the first phase of initiatives in a 12 point recovery plan was “very much based on the here and now”.
That sees the council, among other measures, boosting its rates rebate scheme for people who lose their jobs, waiving rent for community groups and businesses that are unable to pay, and providing up to $1 million in funding for social services.
“That’s really important because we do rely on a very strong community sector,” Southgate said. “Community organisations that run on the smell of an oily rag usually are really going to struggle, but when this is over, we need them.”
Full refunds will be offered to anyone who wants to cancel a building consent or resource consent application.
“There’s nothing stopping businesses from progressing their consenting needs, so that as soon as this is over, they’re ready to go,” Southgate said.
Council chief executive Richard Briggs also urged businesses to get in touch if they are struggling with money they owe council. “Talk to us early. We aren’t going to be draconian over these things.”
Both Southgate and Briggs stressed the role members of the public and business people could play.
Richard Briggs: “When it comes to building a resilient economy, we’ve all got to work together.”
“We want to hear from the wider community as to how this is really affecting them,” Southgate said. “Because coming into this, we didn’t actually know quite how it was going to roll out and I think New Zealand still doesn’t; we’re very uncertain about what the future looks like. We’re trying to be nimble and agile, and to do that we really do need to hear from our community – what is the actual impact of this on them?”
Briggs invited anyone with ideas to get in touch (at Sean.Hickey@hcc.govt.nz). “Just let us know, and we may not be the people to deliver the outcome of those ideas but we can start networking.”
Briggs and Southgate are also setting up a thinktank, including business people, that is likely to be established in the next few days.
“We can deliver the hardship response, but when it comes to building a resilient economy, we’ve all got to work together,” Briggs said, stressing the council’s role in building confidence. “One of the things we want to do is get together a group of smart brains and think about how we can build a resilient community, and out of that, for example, might come some initiatives that we can support financially or with resource in terms of driving the economic response.”
Big ticket infrastructure projects are likely to rev up quickly once the lockdown is finished. Council has been working on identifying projects that could be brought forward with central government funding. It has the advantage that it can build on metro spatial planning undertaken as part of the Hamilton to Auckland corridor, and good lines of communication with both central Government and neighbouring councils.
The exact projects are still under wraps, but it appears likely they will include some already in the offing, such as Southern Links, the Ruakura link road and three waters.
“Another significant project that we’ve been working on for some time is how we address the housing shortage and housing affordability,” Southgate said. “We’re still aware that when we come out of this, we’ve got homes to build, we’ve got affordable homes to build if we are to do well in the future.”
The city’s existing capital programme is also likely to be boosted, with the recovery plan referring to projects such as planting of recreational areas and gullies, erosion control work and cycleways, large wastewater projects and a range of building projects.
“I think it’s fair to say that, over the last four days, we’ve been most focused on immediate relief,” Southgate said. “We are now starting to look at the medium and long term possibilities, how we lift the community up from its knees after this and get people back into jobs and get the economy moving again.”
She said she is proud of councillors and staff for the way they had quickly pulled together seven key initiatives to support people immediately, but said there is more to come for both the business community and the
wider community.
Council is due to work through the annual plan proposals. “There’s a lot of opportunity for us to refashion the annual plan if needed going forward into the next financial year. So the timing is quite good for that.
“And then, of course, the 10 year plan starts to be reviewed later this year, and we were going to roll out consultation on that very early. That’s another opportunity to reshape the future because nothing’s the same as it was before this happened. We’ve really got to look at it with fresh eyes.
“I just want to say to the business community, I think we’ve clearly signalled that we are walking alongside you for this journey.”
• https://ourhamilton.co.nz/growing-hamilton/city-announces-12-point-recovery-plan/
A council under lockdown
While essential services such as water treatment and some road works are still being undertaken during the lockdown, most Hamilton City Council staff are now working remotely.
Chief executive Richard Briggs is acutely aware of the social isolation that can bring, and what the council can do to support its workers.
He has instituted a buddy system, the idea being that buddies phone each other at least once a day. For himself, he said he is also making sure he phones a friend or family daily.
“The social isolation thing from the organisation’s perspective is moderately concerning to me. I’ve got 1200 staff, a significant proportion are working from home, some of them working from home have no family,” he said.
“We have made Zoom readily available to the organisation so people can set up video conferences and see people face to face.”
He said Southgate is running upbeat meetings with her councillors focused on positive outcomes. “It’s more about support and camaraderie. I’ll follow suit with my senior leadership team.”
Briggs said leveraging Facebook or Linkedin Live is a good way of people getting out there and doing business if they have a message to spread.
“We are trying to get down to business as usual because we can use technology. I’ve got a number of meetings that were face to face and now are Zoom to Zoom. I think that’s key, just get on with it.”
