Ire as performance targets extended

Guy Percival.
Guy Percival.
A Waitaki district councillor has taken aim at the moving of "goal posts" for the council’s regulatory services team.

Cr Guy Percival was the lone opposing voice among councillors when they voted earlier this month to extend timeframes for the council’s regulatory services team to reach performance targets.

"You’ve just moved the goal posts — and we set them up anyway," Cr Percival said.

"Why do you keep moving the goal posts? That doesn’t happen in real life."

Six proposed performance targets for regulatory services improvements had their target dates extended by up to 18 months at the council’s May 10 meeting. In a report to the council, regulatory services manager Lichelle Guyan said "a number of factors" had contributed to the team’s inability to meet its targets for improvements, including issuing consents within 15 days after they were lodged and completing 100% of building inspections within 48 hours of receiving a request. It took longer than anticipated to recruit building control officers, and one staff member left the council after just three months in the role, she said.

The volume of work had also increased in response to International Accreditation New Zealand audit recommendations.

"Our reality is that we will not meet these objectives within the current timeframes and rather than fail them all, we seek approval to take a progressive approach to meeting those."

The council’s original goal of issuing all consents within 15 working days of lodgement without affecting overall operations by 2017 has now been switched to a June 30, 2018, target date.

Implementing a 24-hour booking request for inspections by 2017 has also been pushed out to June 30, 2018.

Completing 100% of building inspections within two working days is a target now set for December 31, 2018. Cr Melanie Tavendale said at the meeting "a lot of elements" had been at play to slow the regulatory services team’s improvements. There was a shortage of staff across New Zealand,  and the council had found it difficult to attract staff. Regulatory services also was faced with information technology "limitations", she said.

Add a Comment