A write-off for the planning and design of the Otago Regional Council's proposed waterfront office building was a major reason for the local body's reduced $2.7 million operating surplus in the 2008-09 draft annual report.
Although the surplus for the year ended June 30 was down from the $3.1 million surplus budgeted for, and a little over a third of the previous year's $7.5 million result, acting chairman Stephen Woodhead said he was pleased with the financial state of the council when the report was presented yesterday.
Significant contributors to the reduced surplus were the write-off of $3.6 million for the planning and design of the proposed waterfront office building, an unbudgeted gain of $1.3 million from selling Kuriwao endowment land and underexpenditure of $1.5 million.
Significant items in the budgeted surplus were a $2.5 million in dividend for the new council building, gains of $292,000 on council investments and $250,000 in interest income from dedicated reserves.
Across all council projects, the council underspent its budget by $4.6 million.
About $4.4 million of that was for the Leith Lindsay Flood Protection Scheme as capital work on the project had not begun.
Other underspending was on resource consent processing (about $580,000), due to a smaller number of applications received than anticipated; compliance monitoring ($112,000); financial contributions ($114,000); environmental enhancements ($158,000) and safety and hazards ($429,000).
The deferment of work on a regional policy statement and regional plan for waste led to underspending of $351,000 and public passenger transport was under budget by $875,000 due to cost estimates for contracts being overstated.
However, the Regional Land Transport Planning budget was overspent by $263,000 due to the Land Transport Amendment Act 2008 coming into force in August.
The council also overspent on incidents, complaints and oil spills by $182,000, due to more enforcement work being done.
Its revenue was over budget by $274,000.
Greater priority being placed on the regional plan for water led to overspending by $313,000.
The group result was $10.4 million, made up of the council's $2.7 million result and $7.7 million from the Port Otago group of companies, which it owns.
Staff numbers decreased from 141 to 132, of whom 10 (up from seven the previous year) were paid more than $100,000, including two paid more than $150,000.
Chief executive Graeme Martin received a salary unchanged from the previous year of $222,000.
Nine councillors received payments of between $37,747 and $44,538.
Chairman Stephen Cairns received $115,697 and deputy chairman Stephen Woodhead $55,889.
