Taupo District Council Extraordinary Meeting 14th April Agenda

The plan is to stream the meeting live at 1pm onto the TDC website (which links to their Youtube channel) – https://www.taupodc.govt.nz/council/meetings/council-web-cam

Extraordinary Council Meeting Agenda14 April 2020Item 4.2 (Abridged)

RECEIPT OF THE LTPPJC 21 FEBRUARY 2020 MEETING MINUTES AND OPTIONS FOR FUTURE GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT OF THE LAKE TAUPO PROTECTION PROJECT Author:Tanya Wood, Policy Advisor Authorised by:Alan Menhennet, Head of Finance and Strategy

Ref: https://taupo.infocouncil.biz/Open/2020/04/TDC_20200414_AGN_5465_EXTRA.PDF

PURPOSE To receive the minutes of the Lake Taupō Protection Project Joint Committee (LTPPJC) meeting held on 21 February 2020.To make a decision on whether Council should accept the Lake Taupō Protection Projection Joint Committee’s (LTPPJC) recommendations relating to the preferred options for the future governance and management of the Lake Taupō Protection Project (LTPP).

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The current governance and management arrangement for the LTPP are in place until 30 June 2021.

A decision must be made on these arrangements for post June 2021.

At the LTPPJC meeting on 21 February 2020, the LTPPJC recommended their preferred option for the future governance and management of the Lake Taupō Protection Project.

The LTPPJC’s preferred option is Scenario 1b. (See ‘OPTIONS’ below) Under this option, governance would be undertaken by a joint committee (the status quo) and the management of the project would be undertaken by a council-controlled organisation housed by a partner organisation.

Council now needs to decide whether to accept the LTPPJC’s recommendation, or whether to send the recommendation back to the LTPPJC for reconsideration.

BACKGROUND The proposal has been presented to Council at a workshop on 3 March 2020.

In February 2007 the Crown, WRC and TDC signed an agreement (the Project Agreement) to contribute to a joint public fund to be used to undertake strategies and actions to reduce the amount of nitrogen from entering Lake Taupō.

The agreement covered, among other matters, governance of the project through a joint committee and the establishment of a council-controlled-organisation (the LTPT) to apply the public fund.

The LTPT has expended the public fund by entering into Nitrogen Discharge Reduction Agreements (NDRAs) with land owners. These NDRAs have a term of 999 years and require ongoing monitoring and contractual oversight to ensure that the terms and conditions of the contracts are adhered to and the investment made by the funding partners in the project is protected.

The original Project Agreement had a sunset clause terminating the project on 30 June 2019. A recent variation extended the term of the project to 30 June 2021 as there was a need to determine the future governance, management and ongoing funding arrangements for the project.

The LTPT is operating on residual funds for the term of the extension.

OPTIONS: Analysis of Options

A service delivery review of the LTPP was undertaken by the Officials Working Party. The review involved:

•An overview of the ongoing services to be delivered including a long-term work programme (2020 –2031)

•Identification of the service delivery options and the development of six governance and management scenarios

•An assessment and ranking of the six scenarios in accordance with a set of principles agreed by the partners for the transition of the project as well as analysis by efficiency (cost) and risk

•Closer examination of the three highest ranking scenarios and selection of a preferred option.Based on the assessment undertaken in this review, the three highest-ranking scenarios were:

•Scenario 1a: Governance -Joint committee (status quo), Management -CCO with independent administration (status quo)

•Scenario 1b: Governance -Joint committee (status quo), Management -CCO (status quo) housed by partner organisation (new)

•Scenario 2a: Governance -Joint committee (status quo), Management -Single partner responsible for management of the NDRAs (new).Analysis Conclusion: At this stage in transitioning the project from a development to a maintenance phase, the conclusion of this review is that Scenario 1b (Joint Committee with CCO housed by partner organisation) is the preferred option. Briefly, the reasons for this are as follows.

a)The structural arrangements for the project have proved to have been successful. Specifically, this option:

•Reinforces the collaborative aspects of the project and maintains the sense of shared responsibility

•Reduces the likelihood of project intellectual property being lost

•Allows for the independent, commercial management of the NDRAs.

b)This option maintains flexibility for the future by:

•Retaining the constitutional and structural arrangements for the project which would be difficult to reinstate if deconstructed

•Keeps options open should changes need to be made to address new circumstances.

c) Housing the LTPT as a stand-alone operation with a service level agreement within a partner organisation, reduces the annual operating costs by approximately $50k and aligns expenditure with the scope of the activities to be performed.

COMMUNICATION/MEDIA This issue will be communicated through the wider communications for the TDC Long-term Plan 2021-31.

CONCLUSION The LTPPJC have recommended their preferred option for the future governance of the LTPP. Council must now decide whether to accept the recommendation, or whether to send the recommendation back to the LTPPJC back for reconsideration.