The ongoing rates debacle at the West Coast Regional Council is "very regrettable".
Council chief executive Darryl Lew used those words while under fire from former chairman Allan Birchfield over incorrect invoices for rates at a council meeting on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, an auditor's explanation of the issues with rates bills was kept behind closed doors in a workshop yesterday — with the council promising a press release later.
Councillor Birchfield said that was not good enough given the widespread incorrect invoices.
"The discussion should be in public," he said.
He said a wholesale restructure for West Coast's local government was overdue.
"This council is getting very expensive — an expense this region can't afford," Birchfield said.
The rates issue flared up as Birchfield pointed the finger at the council's finance chairman, Frank Dooley, as the meeting wound down.
Birchfield noted some blame had been put onto council staff.
Lew responded by saying an auditor was due to give an analysis of the situation during the Tuesday workshop.
"My focus as CEO is analysing what has been the problem and what we need to do to make it right so that it doesn't happen again," he said.
The council approved a general rates rise of 16.49% on June 27.
But ratepayers were left shocked when invoices started arriving 10 days ago with 50 to 100% increases.
Lew said the council was going through a process to understand what went wrong, and how to "put it right" for ratepayers.
Birchfield said he had read in media the problem had been put onto council staff, but "surely it has to come back to Frank [Dooley]".
Dooley said the processing of 9000 rates invoices was not his responsibility.
However, he said he had been analysing the mess after approaches from ratepayers.
Dooley then directed criticism at Birchfield, saying issues stemmed back to the rates demands in the 2022-2023 annual plan, "when you were chairman of this organisation".
Dooley has been critical of the council previously deferring its rates increases. His analysis of rates for the Grey constituency in 2022-23 found council had agreed to a 22% shortfall, Dooley said. This had "a compounding effect" on the current year by having to factor in a larger increase.
Dooley said the 16.49% average rates increase across the region, approved in June, was correct.
However, the council had failed to communicate the impact of capital valuations.
"What people have not taken into consideration is there has been a re-valuation."
Dooley gave the example of a property where the rates increased over 52% this year.
Of that, 10.2% was due to the approved 2023-24 rates increase, and 42.5% was the result of the increase in the capital value on that property.
"So when there is a revaluation every three years, these have an impact."
In contrast the capital valuations for the Grey constituency had gone down recently.
"The problem is around the capital values that have been used. The capital value is not accurate — we've used the old capital value, not the new one."
Dooley said he had only analysed one Westland rates demand, which showed the differentials applied through the rates system were correct, but there had also been an increase in special rating costs on top of general rates.
"If you want me to take full responsibility, I will take responsibility. If things were done in [2022-23] accurately, things would be a lot clearer," he told Birchfield.
Councillor Peter Ewen pointed out that council had occasionally been caught out in the past with the fresh capital valuations coming out in October after the mid-year annual plan process.
Dooley said council should have a cut-off date for revaluations to guide staff.
By Brendon McMahon, Local Democracy Reporter
Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air
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